Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC), a generation and transmission cooperative with more than 400 substations in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Kansas, had been plagued for decades by repeated substation outages caused by the incursion of bull snakes. Some substations were experiencing multiple outages each week, resulting in $15–20,000 in lost revenue and repair costs with each outage.
Billy Young, WFEC substation supervisor, was introduced to TransGard Systems at an industry conference. He learned that TransGard fences had been preventing outages from squirrels, raccoons — and snakes — at more than 1,900 North American substations. Young researched TransGard and ultimately decided to consult them about a way to address WFEC’s snake problem. After seeing TransGard’s specially-designed snake panel, Young recommended that WFEC test the system for their own use by constructing a TransGard fence around a problem substation in central Oklahoma.
The application of the TransGard fencing proved to be easy and effective, and WFEC now uses the fencing on eight of its substations. In fact, TransGard fencing is now standard on all new substation construction.
“The TransGard team helped us install fencing for the first two of our substations,” says Young. “But the assembly itself is very easy. The TransGard team was great to work with and has been extremely responsive. And the TransGard fencing hasn’t failed us yet.”
“Snakes and other critters sneaking into substations have been the bane of Western Farmers Electric Cooperative crews for decades. Nothing seemed to work consistently over time, until substation supervisor, Billy Young, discovered TransGard at a conference.” This WFEC video explains TransGard’s role in successfully addressing snake incursions at the coop’s substations.