Annual Blackout Tracker Report reveals increased outages across the U.S.
Eaton, a global technology leader in power management solutions, recently released its Blackout Tracker Annual Report for 2013, which reviews yearly data from power outages across the United States. This year’s report included some interesting statistics on animal-caused outages and other key facts. Highlights:
- In all, 3,236 outages were tabulated and used as the basis for the 2013 report, an increase of about 15 percent from the 2,808 outages covered in 2012.
- Electrical power outages, surges and spikes are estimated to ring up more than $150 billion in annual damages to the U.S. economy.
- According to the report, approximately 7% of reported power outages were caused by animals.
- The estimated cost to utility companies for recovering from animal-related outages is between $15 million and $18 million annually.
- The top states for outages caused by animals in 2013 included California, Texas, Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee. Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Colorado, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina also made the top 10.
- As expected, squirrels topped the list of reported power outages by animal type, but raccoons, snakes, rodents, cats and even a beaver were also cited for causing outages throughout 2013.
This year’s Blackout Tracker confirms that animal-caused outages can result in major headaches for utilities across the country. By taking measures to keep climbing animals from damaging substation equipment, any utility can save time, money and hassle for themselves and the customers they serve. To learn more about what solutions TransGard offers, click here.
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