Bird waste in substations is a significant threat that is easy to underestimate as a mere nuisance. Because substation operators may not understand the seriousness of the threat, keeping a substation free from bird waste and preventing bird incursions may be lower priorities than other operational challenges. But the consequences of inaction are great.

When a wild animal causes a power outage in the U.S., it is often a squirrel that gets the attention. But year after year, raccoons are also responsible for major substation outages from Maryland to California.
There are now an estimated 15-20 times more raccoons in the U.S. than in the 1930s, and more than twice as many humans. Those numbers alone reflect part of the issue – but there are other factors that make raccoons a unique challenge for substations