Squirrels: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Zap 'Em

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - September 4, 2006 -- Shocking news: Squirrels and power lines don't mix.

These cute but pesky rodents are a leading cause of unplanned outages. They chew through power lines, fry themselves by completing electrical circuits and generally wreak havoc on power grids.

Utility companies, always on the hunt for new ways to combat animals, may have found an inexpensive solution to what has long been a vexing problem.

If you can't beat 'em, zap 'em.

The ZAPshield is an $11 polymer disc that arrived on the market some three years ago and delivers a non-lethal, electrostatic jolt to any varmint touching it. In Pennsylvania, PECO and PPL have both deployed the ZAPshield. Philadelphia-based PECO also uses an older, similar technology made of metal.

The idea is to give the squirrels enough of a shock to keep them away from sensitive power equipment, but not enough of one to hurt them. Inventor Jim Rauckman compares the feeling of getting zapped by the ZAPshield to walking across a carpet on a dry day and then touching someone.

"It teaches them not to be up there," he said.

PECO has installed about 325 ZAPshields since April 2005, and hasn't had a subsequent outage on any of the transformers that have been fitted.

Company spokesman Michael Wood said PECO plans to install more. "The ZAPshields work well in protecting the squirrels from receiving a severe or fatal shock," he said via e-mail.

Allentown-based PPL, meanwhile, has placed the devices on three electrical switches in Bethlehem and one in the Poconos, all of which have been plagued by squirrels. If the ZAPshields work as expected, PPL plans to put them on all new switches and on existing switches where problems are documented.

"If the squirrel touches it, he'll get a zap and run away," said Al Molchan, with PPL's substation standards group. "It should keep him away."

Last year, squirrels and other animals caused about 4,000 power outages at PPL, more than 20 percent of the total and second in number only to outages caused by bad weather. The company has responded to as many as 20 calls a day for squirrel-induced outages.

Rauckman, who received a patent for the ZAPshield last year, said his company has sold about 100,000 of the devices, primarily to power companies in the Midwest. His company in based in Swansea, Ill.

"We've not gotten any sent back yet, and utilities are not shy about doing that," he said.

ComEd, which supplies electricity to 3.7 million customers in Chicago and northern Illinois, has installed about 8,200 of the devices since last year. Like sister company PECO, ComEd says it hasn't had an outage on any of those transformers since. PECO and Com-Ed both are owned by Chicago-based Exelon Corp.

"Animal intrusions are definitely a challenge for utilities, squirrels primarily," said Jim Owen, spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, a trade group representing about 180 investor-owned utilities. "I'm not surprised that utilities are taking this to the next level."

(Copyright 2006 by the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) --- On the Net: ZAPshield: http://www.rauckmanutility.com/ (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-09-04-06 0005EDT

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•