The reduction of the impact of powerlines on birds has always been a focus area for Eskom and the company has consistently been taking steps to address this matter.
South Africa’s vultures are faced with a number of threats, including poisoning, persecution, drowning in farm reservoirs, food shortages, loss of suitable habitat and the exploitation to the muti trade. Sadly mortalities of these large birds with Eskom infrastructure remain an additional threat and Eskom and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) has since 1996 worked tirelessly to address this concern.

In addition, Eskom is continuously working with other stakeholders such as the Bird Life South Africa, Middelpunt Wetland Trust and Vulpro to avoid or mitigate this impact.
During the past 19 years mitigation measures were installed successfully by Eskom at 1 124 sites where incidents were reported. The Eskom/EWT partnership developed various mitigation devices to reduce bird mortalities such as bird flappers, bird flight diverter spirals, bird guards, raptor protectors and the nocturnal “OWL” device which caters for nocturnal flying birds. Eskom have tested and installed these mitigation devices throughout diverse terrain to reduce bird mortalities.
The latest example of a site mitigated where Eskom recently had to hire a helicopter to assist in changing power lines below the Kransberg vulture colony in Limpopo from bird “unfriendly” to bird “friendly”. The helicopter was needed due to the extreme terrain where the powerlines were located. These are some of the numerous examples of Eskom’s commitment to make its powerlines safe for birds.