Customer outages - Flying foxes

12 Aug 2009

Customers in the rural area may have experienced intermittent loss of power supply over recent weeks. Power was interrupted on a number of occasions due to flying foxes, also known as fruit bats, making contact with power lines and shorting out power.

The power outage is caused when they cluster around powerline insulators and form a bridge from the conductor, or the actual powerline, to the steel crossarms. This causes a short circuit in the High Voltage system and creates a power outage.

We are upgrading High Voltage insulators on overhead powerlines and replacing them with longer post top insulators. This provides greater clearance for birds and animals, and also makes the system more resistant to lightning strikes.

New overhead power line extensions are now using fibreglass crossarms as an alternative to steel crossarms as this also reduces the potential for supply interruptions due to fruit bat activity.

Vermin guards specifically designed to keep away small animals and fruit bats are also being installed around insulators on the top of power poles.

Power and Water Corporation assures customers that it continues to work on reducing the problem while restoring power as quickly as possible.

Contact: Media Manager

Phone: For media enquiries call 08 8985 8481