Dominion Power is starting a new project… one that will make its power lines safer to large birds. Crews have begun an effort across the state to slowly change the way power lines are structured.
About 25 times a year, a large bird, like an eagle,owl, or osprey, will perch on the cross-arms of an electrical pole and spread their long wing-span out…. touching one tip of each wing to an electrical wire.
“If one wing touches one and one the other that’s a potential for an electrocution right there. It’s more than likely going to be a fatal event to the bird.”
Glen Bishop is a biologist with Dominion Power.. and the company’s resident bird-expert. Behind him, just outside of Richmond along the James River, crews in hydraulic lifts work on the lines of an electrical pole.
“What we’re doing, because the bird can’t make it’s wings smaller. We’re widening out lines. It will allow that bird to get up there and then perch safely.”
In addition to widening the lines… crews are also placing “perch guards” on the poles. They’re triangular structures made of PVC pipe that make it hard for birds to stand on the poles. It’s not ALL in the name of protecting nature. When a bird gets shocked it can also create a power outage.
“Anytime you have an outage to a customer that’s a big event that we don’t want to have. So in doing this we’re protecting both the birds and we’re protecting the service to our customer.”
So far Dominion has made the changes to just a couple of poles. But they’ll do the same thing... over the next few years…. to about 220,000 electrical poles around the state.
