Guarding against bird outages: eskom's transmission system project achieves goal to eliminate 'bird streamer' faults

摘要

For several years, Eskom, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, successfully provided the lowest-cost electricity possible to further growth and prosperity. Quality of supply, however, posed a problem, because of natural phenomenons such as lightning, and veld and cane fires. As a result, line faults, particularly those of unknown cause, became the subject of Eskom's research. The utility studied several mechanisms responsible for these line faults, including light wetting, light pollution and streams of bird excreta known as "bird streamers".