ConEd vs. mork parrots

[fsck]

This story is a good reminder that out in the field, not all the problems you have were covered in school/training/ops manuals:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/hootie-and-the-parakeets-round/

ConEd has ongoing issues with the Queen's wild parrots, who love warm places to nest; guess which they choose?

 

[photoengineer]

Interesting. I know that rodents are a big problem in many parts of the country.

Cedar Bluff Engineering

http://cedarbluffengineering.webs.com

 

[rasevskii]

Yes, indeed, rats just love electrical equipment. The least hole in a metal cubicle, or unsealed cable entry, is a guaranteed problem. In one case a 220KV breaker tripped as the rats were munching on the circuit cards in the distance relay, elsewhere, earth faults on 11Kv busbars in metalclad panels, the alarm on the resistive earthed system operated, the rat died and fell to the bottom of the panel. Then the next fellow came along and did the same..In the hot tropical environment it began to smell rather bad after a few weeks of this, so we shutdown and got some local labor to clean out the panels...Then the client decided to seal the cable entries properly.

 

[fsck]

Several times, the major Palo Alto Internet exchange point has been brought down by suicidal squirrels getting into the redundant supplies.

I regard that as just deserts after how many of his brothers and sisters have done in both copper and fiber telecom plant.