Here are the animals that cause power outages

On Monday morning, 2,500 people in Kungsbacka Municipality became powerless after a gang of mice broke into a switchgear and rubbed broken cables. According to Jonatan Björck, who is the press chief of the electricity company Ellevio, this is not the first time this has happened.

- It is not very common for animals to enter our facilities, but when it does, it is usually about rodents. They do not need many millimeters to creep in where there are live leads. They are often found burned afterwards, he says.

In 2016, Ellevio wrote an article about occasions when animals caused problems in the electricity networks around the country. That year, 70 events occurred that could be traced to animals. In total, 20,000 households were affected by the disappearance of power.

Apart from rodents, such as mice and squirrels, birds of various sizes are also common

- Either it can be large birds with wide wingspan that have reached several stages at one time. There may also be a group of small birds sitting on the lines. When they fly away from there, the sway begins and the wires come together, the current is knocked out, says Jonathan Björck.

It has even happened that large birds managed to catch a fish which they then accidentally dropped on equipment and then caused short circuits.

Furthermore, beavers have also posed problems when they fell trees that accidentally landed on the lines. At some point, a fox should enter a switchgear and a third time a cow will cause a break.

- It was rubbing against a network station and accessing live parts, says Jonathan Björck.

In almost all cases, the animals do not survive. It is difficult to completely avoid such incidents. But Jonathan Björck thinks there have been fewer accidents with, for example, beavers and birds since they started digging the pipes in the ground.

- Then there are things you can do. There are special protections that can be put around the insulators wires so that the birds do not access the current, says Jonatan Björck.

Is there any way to protect yourself from the rodents?

- It's probably an impossible task. The only thing we can do is put out traps, he answers.