2025

The energy transition requires construction of new energy infrastructure in remote and wildlife rich areas in order to connect renewable generation to urban consumption, increasing the interactions between wildlife and energised lines. These increased interactions require planning to avoid outages, fire ignition risk and mortality associated with avian collision and electrocution.

The goal of this paper is help utility engineers understand avian collisions and optimise the use and deployment of bird flight diverter technology to consistently reduce avian collision mortality and associated service interruptions.

This paper will detail avian collision risks based on a synopsis of over 60 recent studies evaluating avian collisions since 2005, and interviews with utility engineers and ecologists with recent expertise in the field. It will summarise the variables that impact collision risks overhead line design, environment, avian biology and avian behaviour. This historical study will demonstrate mortality reductions in the range 55-98%. The main body of the paper will categorise and critique the main types of bird flight diverter freely available in the market. It will also assess the use of lasers and UV lights emerging technologies. The review of bird flight diverters will assess improvements in design characteristics; size, colour and contrast, modern engineered surfaces(fluorescing, UV reflecting and phosphorescent), artificial light and durability.

The paper will detail common flight diverter failure modes reported from utility users and make recommendations for qualification testing to ensure durability and effectiveness. The conclusions will details recommendations for future research.