CASE STUDY: West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation
West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (WKRECC) supplies energy via 12 substations to approximately 38,000 members across five counties in Western Kentucky.
The cooperative had been experiencing a frustrating number of recurring outages due to raccoons, snakes and cats causing repeated damage at the same substations.
“We tried a number of deterrents—traditional fence chargers, rubber cover ups, and larger quantities of gravel banked up against the existing fences —all with limited success,” says Greg Simmons WKRECC’s substation superintendent.
Representatives from WKRECC discussed animal outages with technicians from neighboring utility Murray Electric, which had successfully installed TransGard fences in 2010 to address raccoon incursions. WKRECC installed its first TransGard fence in late 2014, and since that time, has installed fences at all of its remaining substations.
“The TransGard system is the best system currently out there to deter animals in subs,” says Simmons. “They are easy to install. They come apart and go back together with no problem if you need to work in the substation.”
In May of 2017, Simmons discovered the shed skin of a 5-foot-long chicken snake at the perimeter of the substation most recently equipped with a TransGard fence.
“I’m sure the snake was on its way to the transformer to find food,” he says. “The fact that it got turned away is evidence that these fences work.”