ENERGO-PRO takes annual measures to identify and secure areas of the electricity distribution network at risk for birds

Yesterday, 10.08.2014, after a signal was received about power line interruptions in the area of the city of Gdynia. Aksakovo, above the Aksakovo panorama, ENERGO-PRO teams conducted a survey of the electricity distribution facilities in this area to establish the cause. During the inspection, it was found that the interruptions were due to stressed storks, which chose the wires of the grate poles of the nearby power line as a convenient landing site. During the inspection, company employees confirmed that the facilities of the electricity distribution network in the area are in good working order and the insulation of the power line in question is in good technical condition.

Every year, teams of specialists of the company carry out inspections of all power lines to track and carry out control on the correct technical operation of the facilities owned by the company.

Annually ENERGO-PRO conducts an analysis of the landing areas preferred by birds from the company's electricity distribution network and identifies areas for securing with storks, muffs and other protective equipment in order to protect the lives of the feathered inhabitants. Periodically, the company serves thousands of kilometers of power distribution network, and the localization of the bird's preferred sections, which change seasonally, is difficult to predict.

From the beginning of August, the autumn migration of birds begins, and one of the serious threats and causes of the death of some of them, including endangered species, is that very often they use electric poles as comfortable places to rest or spend the night. Accidents in such cases are a frequent phenomenon and are provoked by the occurrence of a short circuit, as a result of contact between the grounded parts of the pole and the wires.

ENERGO-PRO continues to take measures to prevent such fatal accidents and reduce damage and risks to birds in contact with wires. Company teams continue to install special platforms for the safe landing of the birds in the sections identified as their most preferred and storks on the poles to prevent them from landing on the wires.

In the last month, the company has installed similar platforms on the territory of Dobrich district, and the last stork barrier is in the village of Dolishte, Varna region.

ENERGO-PRO employees annually install stork nesting platforms on power poles throughout the company to ensure safe nesting and protection of stork life. It turns out that as a result of urbanization, their natural nesting opportunities are limited, and many prefer the poles of the electricity distribution network. Precisely to secure the most risky areas, ENERGO-PRO teams place numerous metal platforms above the wires, thus avoiding the real dangers for the birds of the protected species.

ENERGO-PRO maintains long-term cooperation with the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds and makes efforts to develop and implement measures to isolate the most dangerous electrical poles. In recent years, the two companies have implemented several successful projects for the conservation of protected bird species in the region of North-East Bulgaria. In 2012, within the framework of the joint project “Conservation of the Hunting Falcon in Northeastern Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia”, plastic protectors were placed on the insulators of the poles and parts of the wires in order to protect the life of the birds.

It is known that on the territory of ENERGO-PRO in North-Eastern Bulgaria passes the ancient migratory route of birds ViaPontica and thousands of birds of various species pass from here annually. ENERGO-PRO takes a number of preventive measures to secure as many electric poles as possible, but during migrations, when hundreds of birds gather in flocks to prepare for takeoff, such incidents are not uncommon.

Achieving peaceful coexistence between electricity distribution networks and birds is a global problem that has not yet found its solution.