{"id":1919,"date":"2014-04-21T12:32:26","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T12:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/?p=1919"},"modified":"2020-02-27T12:36:54","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T12:36:54","slug":"powernews-raccoons-wreak-havoc-in-indiana-substation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/powernews-raccoons-wreak-havoc-in-indiana-substation\/","title":{"rendered":"PowerNews: Raccoons Wreak Havoc in Indiana Substation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Furry animals surpass countermeasures to bring down power<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1920\" src=\"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/raccoons_short_substation.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"298\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/raccoons_short_substation.png 624w, https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/raccoons_short_substation-600x768.png 600w, https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/raccoons_short_substation-234x300.png 234w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\" \/>We\u2019ve talked before about the wide range of things that can\u00a0cause a power outage. One of the least predictable is wildlife, with outages being caused by\u00a0<a title=\"TMCNet: Snake Slithers into Electrical Equipment Leaving Thousands in the Dark\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tmcnet.com\/channels\/power-protection\/articles\/289215-power-protection-snake-slithers-into-electrical-equipment-leaving.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">snakes<\/a>,\u00a0<a title=\"I Smell a Rat\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tmcnet.com\/channels\/power-protection\/articles\/331661-smell-rat.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rats<\/a>, and even\u00a0<a title=\"Owl's Diverted Flight Path Leaves Thousands in the Dark in Indiana\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tmcnet.com\/channels\/power-protection\/articles\/283804-power-protection-owls-diverted-flight-path-leaves-thousands.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">owls<\/a>\u00a0in the past. Officials in Richmond, Indiana recently learned that even the best countermeasures can be outsmarted when a pair of\u00a0<a title=\"Resourceful raccoons to blame for Richmond power outage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pal-item.com\/article\/20140418\/NEWS01\/304180011\/Resourceful-racoons-to-blame-for-Richmond-power-outage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">crafty raccoons managed to enter a substation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The power feed from the station to hundreds of homes in the area was knocked out when the animals came in contact with electrical breakers, shorting out the supply and leaving residents in the dark. Read on to find out what prevented the situation from being even worse.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Never Underestimate Your Opponent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1921 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/electrical_substation.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"298\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/electrical_substation.png 800w, https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/electrical_substation-600x400.png 600w, https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/electrical_substation-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/electrical_substation-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\" \/>Officials from Richmond Power &amp; Light said that \u201cvarmint guards\u201d were in place at the station. These devices, which are inflatable, are designed to keep animals from entering the area around the transformers, protecting both any potential invaders and the nearby recipients of the power. Somehow, the pair climbed above the countermeasures and found their way into the transformer hardware.<\/p>\n<p>Their craftiness was rewarded with \u2013 well, you can probably guess how shorting out high-voltage equipment in a substation worked out for them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Preventive Systems did their Job<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The good news from this event is that circuit breakers at the site did exactly what they were supposed to do \u2013 shut down power after short occurred. This prevented any further damage from occurring, allowing officials to complete checks and restore power\u00a0less than an hour later.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately for smaller scale users of power,\u00a0<a title=\"Newbie\u2019s Nook: What\u2019s a UPS?\" href=\"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/newbies-nook-whats-ups\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Uninterruptible Power Supplies<\/a>\u00a0feature circuit breakers and overload protection that work in much the same way in the event of a short or other catastrophic power problem. Utilizing a UPS will both prevent downtime during a utility power outage, and stop the flow of electricity if a short occurs in the connected equipment, preventing further damage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Resourceful raccoons to blame for Richmond power outage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pal-item.com\/article\/20140418\/NEWS01\/304180011\/Resourceful-racoons-to-blame-for-Richmond-power-outage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more about the Richmond Indiana Substation Incident &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Minuteman PowerBlog Battery Backup Posts\" href=\"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/blog\/tag\/battery-backup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Learn more about Uninterruptible Power Supplies &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Furry animals surpass countermeasures to bring down power We\u2019ve talked before about the wide range of things that can\u00a0cause a power outage. One of the least predictable is wildlife, with&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[612,184,619,615,613,620,616,183,621,180,154,624,416,617,614,623,622,618,153,143],"class_list":["post-1919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-powernews","category-163","description-off"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/raccoons_short_substation.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Todd Vancil","author_link":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/author\/todd\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/raccoons_short_substation.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1924,"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919\/revisions\/1924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1919"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minutemanups.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}