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By Reya MehrotraBescom is set to protect its systems from rodents that enter systems, chew on wiresLet’s assume the trees are trimmed, the fallenare straightened up andare refurbished, but Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd (Bescom) has alas been caught unawares by a gnashing enemy. It is rodents that have managed to get inside Bescom’s skin and if officials are to be believed behind the city’s infamous outages too.Bescom claims it has trimmed over 80,000 trees, straightened nearly 7,800 poles and refurbished 5,458 transformers, but rats, mice and other rodents have defeated their purpose, but contributing to. Firm on its task, Bescom is now going for rodent repellent systems at its Integrated Control Centres. The rodent repellent systems will be installed at BICC-1 in Sector 2, HSR Layout, at an estimated cost of Rs 4.5 lakh and this will soon be followed at BICC-2 in Rajajinagar and to other stations.A senior official explained to BM how rodents are giving Bescom and the city sleepless nights. “Many might think it is a small issue, but rodents are capable of damaging systems badly. In the past, we had seen transformer bursts and power outages and when we checked into the issue, we were surprised to see that the rodents had entered into the system and tried to eat the wires and in the process, not only did the rodents die, but they also created the outage.”He said once the rodents enter the system, it is like an open invitation to snakes, and together the animals create havoc with the. “So, now we have taken up utmost precautions to keep the rats away. We are also telling people not to throw garbage and litter around the transformer areas as this can attract rodents. It is really disappointing to see people throwing garbage without realising that they are encouraging rodents in those areas near transformers,” he said.The official added that any damage to thecentres could disrupt the entire server system of Bescom and damage the expensive installed devices that could force Bescom to take up manual operations till the system is restored.James Philips, General Manager - Distribution Automation System (DAS), said, “We cannot afford to disrupt the automation system as it has all the information and data and costly devices installed. Though this will not impact the power supply directly but it would halt our operations.” About the safety measures, he said, several safety measures have been taken up like fire safety for the control centres at HSR Layout and the plan will soon be extended to the one at Rajajinagar too. “The former centre has been in place for three years now and these are critical control centres and need to be taken care of. In the past there have been small incidents of rodents skinning the power wires and we do not want them to damage the ones in these two automation centres so we will install the rodent repellents. All the safety measures are being taken as per the protection guidelines of DAS systems. If rodents cause some damage, we cannot blame them so these precautionary measures will help. The repellents will be electronic sensors and will detect rodents through frequency,” he said.James Philips writes there have been instances of rodents entering the transformer centres and skinning wires at the DAS centre, which could have caused a major problem, but the damage was controlled in time. Philips, adds, “Especially during monsoons, we have seen rats entering the DAS system and skinning some wires but we observed them at the right time and a dire situation was averted. DAS systems are very important and we do not want to take further risk so the repellent systems are needed here on priority.”* The two BICC centres were constructed under the DAS project to automate the 11kV distribution network* It is for remote monitoring, control and operation of the network* It enhances reliability and quality of power supply; reduces down time for fault location and quick restoration through advanced software* The DAS project was undertaken at a cost of Rs 563.7 crore