There are a lot of things you don't think about when you turn on your electricity. Power can go out for a number of reasons including storms and extreme heat during summer (as often happens here in Australia!). One thing you probably didn't know is that something as simple as a bird landing in the wrong place at the substation could take out the power for an entire suburb and things could be even worse if birds were to actually nest inside a vital component.

Advanced Nets were called in to work with the state power supplier in order to bird proof a large substation in South Australia and this presented us with a number of challenges.

The main challenge of this job was installing bird net to protect all the individual parts of the facility whilst still providing easy access for employees to maintain the equipment. The best way to do this was to manufacture one large net to cover the entire outside of the facility therefore stopping birds from getting anywhere near it whilst also having no impact on access to equipment for workers.

The trouble with installing such a large net structure in the middle of an open area, centered on making such a huge freestanding structure sturdy enough to withstand the weather and especially the strong winds which can blow across the land. This was especially important because if it collapses the outcome could disastrous. 

Next... How do we install such a large net over electrical equipment without causing damage or cutting off the power supply?

Through a combination of posts and tensioned rigging the job was completed on time and everybody was pleased with the finished result which you can see in the photos below. This job was completed in 2006 and to this day not one single bird has got through!

See some more of our bird exclusion jobs here