EG.D equips Czech high-voltage poles with bird-protection brackets

EG.D technicians are installing special brackets on high-voltage poles to protect birds from injury or death by electric shock. Each year, they equip more than 2000 locations; more than 90.000 poles in EG.D’s distribution area are protected, yet hundreds of thousands of birds still die from electric shocks in Czechia every year. Representatives of EG.D, part of the E.ON energy group, and the Czech Society for Ornithology (ČSO) told journalists today.

EG.D has been working with ornithologists since 1997. They help identify locations where poles need to be fitted with the brackets because birds are often killed or injured there by electric shocks. „Natural perches in the form of trees have almost disappeared from intensively farmed landscapes with large fields, so birds readily use poles in fields and meadows – both to rest and to look out for prey,“ said ČSO director Zdeněk Vermouzek. A bird is struck by an electric discharge if it perches on a pole and touches a wire, or touches two adjacent wires with its wings.