THE Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife and Energy Programme, in partnership with Eskom Holdings SOC Limited, has designed and developed a unique drone-operated system to carry and deploy bird flight diverters, or ‘flappers’, which serve as markers to improve the visibility of power line cables to birds in flight.
Collision with overhead power lines is a significant cause of mortality for several large bird species. Line markers are the preferred and most widely implemented approach to preventing avian collisions with power lines and can reduce mortality by up to 92% for certain species.
In South Africa, line markers are currently attached to power lines by hand, via helicopter for larger transmission lines, and a bucket truck for smaller distribution lines, which all present significant safety concerns. However, drone technology now provides an alternative that negates the need to bring linemen into contact with power line cables while potentially saving millions of Rands in helicopter time and other live line equipment usually required to perform the task.
Improving the marking efficiency and cost-effectiveness will help streamline powerline mitigation efforts to the benefit of thousands of South Africa’s threatened and protected avifauna birds.
Constant Hoogstad, the EWT’s Senior Manager: Industry Partnerships, initiated the project in 2016 and said, “What an incredible achievement for the Eskom/EWT strategic partnership to mark the first powerline in Africa with an RPAS system.
“This has taken years of hard work and dedication from a very committed team to ensure that history was made and is a huge win for bird species affected by collisions with powerlines. The system will enable utilities to mark power lines in a more cost-effective way from now on, which will save millions of Rands”.
The Eskom/EWT strategic partnership is an example of what can be achieved when business and conservationists work together towards a common goal to address electricity infrastructure impacts on wildlife in South Africa for the last 24 years.
