A bird’s attraction to the wrong kind of feeder led to Northampton’s third animal-related power outage in as many years.
At National Grid’s West Street substation Saturday, a nest built by a bird on a utility device called a “feeder” broke the connection between the substation and transformers, said National Grid spokesperson Danielle Williamson.
Beginning around 1 p.m. Saturday, that caused an interruption in power that affected about 5,000 customers. The power was fully restored by 4:30 p.m.
In October 2015, an unidentified animal — likely some type of rodent — got into the substation and interrupted power for 5,400 customers for about half an hour. In October 2014, about 5,000 customers lost power for 90 minutes after a squirrel damaged a line in the substation.
Williamson said the yearly appearance of meddling animals didn’t strike her as abnormal.
“I would say, if you look at all the power outages, it’s fairly common for a critter to be at the source,” she said Monday.
National Grid’s substations do have measures to prevent animals from getting in, Williamson said in an email later Monday. To keep out “crawling” animals — like squirrels or raccoons — fences are erected around complex equipment, and round discs attached to the infrastructure discourage contact.
The company also uses insulation and works with pest control companies, she said. “It’s similar to what one would do to keep rodents out of a home.”
Those same protections can help deter birds as well, she said, but winged creatures are more difficult to keep away. National Grid works with wildlife officials to set up nesting platforms for certain types of birds, like osprey, to keep them off the equipment. But that wasn’t the case at the West Street substation.
Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz said he’d expressed concern to National Grid about the repeated incidents of animals causing power outages.
“They understand, and they’re going to talk to their folks there and look into it further,” he said.
Narkewicz also said fake owls were among the measures used to deter birds at the West Street substation.
The outage’s only effect on city spending or resources stemmed from traffic lights that lost power, he said. Three officers from the Northampton Police Department began shifts early to direct traffic.