By By MICHAEL C. GUILMETTE JR. / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Squirrels getting into electrical substations can not only get fried by the raw power flowing through the lines, but they can also cause outages that affect homes and businesses.
In order to prevent such incursions, the City of Niles Utilities Department is recommending purchase of an electrified animal deterrent system to place around the city's electrical equipment. The system, made by TransGard, would cost the city $17,991, but it could save far greater costs.
"In one of the occurrences, we lost a reclosure to damage, and that's about a $15,000 piece of equipment," James Lehmkuhl, utilities manager, told the utilities board Monday.
A reclosure is a type of circuit breaker that protects electrical transmission systems from temporary voltage surges and other unfavorable conditions.
Lehmkuhl said costs can potentially be far greater.
"Transformers …are $200,000 pieces of equipment," he said, adding those can be vulnerable to damage from an animal incursion. Aside from equipment damage, outages require electrical crews to respond, resulting in overtime pay, particularly if the incident takes place during a weekend or holiday.
Lehmkuhl said a fence, if approved by the city council, will be installed around the industrial park substation located on Terminal Road. If it proves to prevent animal incursions, the utilities department will consider placing fences around other substations.
The fence, Lehmkuhl said, is a high voltage but low amperage system designed to repel animals that touch it without causing them permanent harm. He said such fences would be placed inside the chain-link fences that already surround the substations.