No storms. The City just trimmed the trees. It's not peak usage time. Then why have my neighbors and I had two power outages in as many weeks? Squirrels, of course.

"Squirrels are often the cause of power outages. They can can readily climb a power pole and crawl across a power line. The animals will climb onto transformers or capacitors looking for food. If they touch a high voltage conductor and a grounded portion of the device at the same time, they are then electrocuted and cause a short circuit that shuts down equipment. " -- Wikipedia

There's a transformer in the neighbor's yard so we hear it loud and clear when it pops. And we've seen the fried squirrels. I must, however, commend Austin Energy for their prompt restoration of power. It never takes more than 45 minutes to an hour to get the power back on when the culprit is a squirrel-related outage. The city says that "In Austin, tree limbs are the most common cause of power outages." In the years I've lived here, in my little piece of the neighborhood it's been those squirrels 5 to 1 over tree limbs and weather.

I recall that quite a few years back they installed some sort of wildlife guard on our line (perhaps one of this type developed here in Austin at 3M, I'm not sure). If it's still there, it's not working anymore.

Are squirrel-induced power outages a problem in your area? Anyone have practical solutions that homeowners might use to combat the problem? Share!