Instances of critters causing electrical failures by getting inside power substations have happened enough times that the North Little Rock Electric Department is asking the city government's approval to spend more than $100,000 to fence off its Westgate Substation.
A pair of ordinances to be introduced to the North Little Rock City Council at its 6 p.m. meeting today would allow for the waiving of formal bidding requirements so the city utility can partner with Entergy Arkansas in contracting for the fencing equipment and its installation.
North Little Rock's portion of the cost is to be $60,333.88, plus applicable taxes, for the fencing provided by Vanquish Fencing Inc. and $58,000 for A-Dependable Fencing to install the fencing for the city's part of the substation site, according to the two ordinances. The costs will come out of the utility's budget.
There are two Westgate substations, one being North Little Rock Electric's and the other Entergy's, together on a secured site south of Riverfront Drive at the end of Smart House Drive, just east of the Pike Avenue roundabout. Because of the proximity of the substations, the two utilities are to work together in purchasing the new fencing.
"Their station is actually feeding our station," said Scott Springer, North Little Rock Electric's general manager. "Over the last couple of years, that station has been taken out two separate times due to raccoons getting up in there. Blew the insulators and took both stations out. Once on the Entergy side and once on our side.
"The last time it went out on their side," Springer said. "A critter got in there and took out their station. The time before that, it was ours."
Losing the city's Westgate substation causes failures for more than 6,300 North Little Rock customers, Springer said, covering North Little Rock's downtown area, including Verizon Arena and Wyndham Riverfront hotel. The site is just off the Arkansas River.
"I guess the animals come up off that river," Springer said, and they have power failures a few times over the years.
When North Little Rock Electric was looking to solve its animal problem at Westgate, so was Entergy, Springer said, and its officials asked the city utility to work with it at the Westgate site.
"Entergy implemented a program where they were going through all of their substations doing that type of fencing," Springer said. "It's expensive, but they've not had any animal intrusion since they started.
"It's real specialized fencing, and the installation is real specialized," Springer said, with installers needing to get into the underground grid system. "It's pretty technical, as you can tell from the price."
Entergy has already contracted with Vanquish Fencing for the animal-deterrent fence system and with A-Dependable Fencing as Vanquish's preferred installer, according to the legislation. The fence is to be 7 feet high with a foot of barbed wire and an "animal deterrent swing gate," according to a description by Vanquish.
The fencing that Entergy uses is "very effective at keeping out crawling animals, even snakes," said David Lewis, an Entergy spokesman. Because of the significant investment, he added, the specialized fencing is only used after other efforts have proved insufficient, he said.
In 2018, Entergy reported 3,378 critter-caused power failures -- more than 2,800 just by squirrels -- that affected a total of 60,004 customers. In 2019, there have been 428 such failures.
Substations have gaps between components that shouldn't be in contact with one another, such as an energized wire and a grounded neutral wire, Lewis said.
"So if something, like an animal, replaces that air gap with its body, it becomes a conductor as the electricity finds its way to the ground," Lewis said. "This is usually accompanied by a flash, which usually damages equipment such as insulators or switches.
"An animal-caused flash will take out the entire circuit," he said.
Most substations feed two or three circuits that can serve between 200 and 2,000 customers, Lewis said. Repairs in a substation take at least four hours, he said.
Animals getting into electrical equipment is something the utility is "constantly fighting," said Kerri Case, also an Entergy spokesman.
"Possums, snakes, raccoons, squirrels," Case said. "Especially in the winter. It's warm in there, so that's where they want to be.
"Unfortunately, it usually ends badly for them," she said.
Metro on 03/25/2019