A bird found an unfortunate end on Thursday when it landed on a transformer and caused a power-outage to 3,100 St. Albert homes.
The outage lasted almost an hour, starting around 7:32 p.m. It mostly affected homes south of the Sturgeon River. Crews found a burn site, indicating the bird’s landing spot, when they checked on the transformer, said Peter Brodsky, spokesperson for AltaLink, the area’s electricity transmission company.
“(Birds) typically land on a flat surface or a barbed surface on the transformer and when they stretch their wings, sometimes, unfortunately, they make contact with two energized portions,” he said. “And that results in what we call a flash-over and that is sufficient to trip off the equipment.”
Transformers are often found at the top of utility poles, and are used to safely transfer electricity from power stations to buildings and homes. Because the voltage transported along the transmission lines is too high and dangerous to use in homes, the transformers reduce the voltage.
Brodsky said that transformers are eight- to 10-feet of the ground, which is why birds like to use them as perches. Energy providers now use vinyl coverings to protect the animals from the energized portions. This has cut bird-related outages to almost none, he said.
“But, occasionally, a bird will find a way to circumvent that,” he said.
Crews will now check the equipment and make sure it’s working properly. Brodsky expects that no other outages will follow from this incident.
