Reducing wildlife-caused outages and mortality in distribution substations - A systematic approach to risk, design, durable mitigation and conservation.

Wildlife interaction in substations is a global issue with consequences for both biodiversity and power system performance. Electrocution of birds, mammals and reptiles, together with wildlifecaused faults, equipment damage and ignition events, result in species mortality, habitat degradation, wildfire and loss of supply continuity. As substations connect new renewable generation facilities and associated transmission and distribution systems, improving their environmental performance is an important component of wider biodiversity conservation and enhancement objectives for power infrastructure. This paper presents a practical framework for reducing wildlife mortality and substation-related risk through three linked elements: (1) a structured mitigation process, (2) a prioritisation model…