AKRON, Ohio, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of
its ongoing efforts to protect nesting birds, the Pennsylvania
Power Company (Penn Power) has proactively installed new fiberglass
crossarms on nearly two dozen utility poles along the Route 18
causeway over the Shenango River Lake in Mercer County. The work will help
prevent electrical service disruptions by discouraging ospreys from
nesting on utility poles.
Crossarms are mounted on the top of a utility pole to hold up
power lines or other equipment. Penn Power line workers
replaced 21 wooden, double crossarms with a new, single fiberglass
crossarm. Unlike a double crossarm, the single crossarm
design does not entice an osprey because it is not large or stable
enough to hold the nest, which can measure up to three feet in
width.
"Ospreys typically arrive in Pennsylvania in late March and return to the
same nesting sites from the year before," said Amy Ruszala, an environmental scientist and
avian expert at Penn Power's parent company, FirstEnergy Corp.
(NYSE: FE). "It was important to not only remove unoccupied
osprey nests that were situated on our utility poles, but also take
action to prevent the birds from making new nests on our equipment
this spring."
The Penn Power service area has experienced a spike in the
osprey population over the past five years, but the company's
previous attempts to deter them from nesting on utility poles along
the causeway have been unsuccessful.
Ospreys prefer to nest near large bodies of water in a large,
bulky pile of sticks, put together on the top of a tall tree, a
rocky ledge or utility pole crossarms. A nesting platform was
installed by Penn Power near the lake to discourage them from
nesting on utility poles, but the birds were not receptive to the
structure.
"These nesting habits often place the birds near electrical
equipment, which jeopardizes their well-being and can potentially
cause power outages," said Ruszala, who worked closely with Penn
Power utility personnel and engineers last fall to identify pole
nesting sites that would benefit from a single crossarm design.
Electricity to the distribution line that spans the Route 18
causeway had been rerouted to another line since June to protect
the nesting birds and prevent hazardous situations like pole
fires. With the new fiberglass crossarms providing a more
permanent solution to the osprey nesting issue, the line has been
reenergized and customers in the area are benefiting from a more
reliable, resilient system.
While the birds were south for the winter, utility personnel
also worked closely with FirstEnergy's environmentalists and state
wildlife officials to remove nests from substations and
transmission towers. Ospreys are a month away from their peak
breeding season and will lay their eggs between April and July.
Penn Power is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy and serves more than
160,000 customers in all or parts of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Lawrence, and Mercer counties in western Pennsylvania.
Follow Penn Power on Twitter @Penn_Power, on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/PennPower, and online at
www.pennpower.com.
FirstEnergy is dedicated to safety, reliability and operational
excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one
of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving
customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, West Virginia,
Maryland and New York. The
company's transmission subsidiaries operate more than 24,500 miles
of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic
regions. Follow FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com
and on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.
Editor's Note: Photos of Penn Power's new upgrades
to protect nesting birds are available for download on Flickr.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.