Company aims to limit power outages due to animal short circuits

Severe weather is one of the leading causes of power outages in the Tar Heel State. But so far this month, three blackouts have been due to snakes. A company with offices in North Carolina has come up with a solution.

While electrical substations are protected from the elements, they’re not critter-proof. They’re an ideal nesting site for birds, and as a result, a buffet for hungry, egg-eating snakes. TE Connectivity is a company that’s designed a device to deter top offenders — snakes and squirrels — from gaining access. Its wildlife line guard is a metal tube covered in rows of rotating spikes. Senior Product Manager Luis Puigcerver says they attach to power lines.  

"When a squirrel tries to approach it and tries to move across it, it literally self-spins, and the squirrel either falls to the ground or decides this is very unstable and I'm going to return to whence I came from," says Puigcerver.

TE engineers design, develop, and manufacture them at the company’s energy headquarters in Fuquay-Varina, a half-hour south of Raleigh.