Hamilton,
Bermuda
Bermuda Electric Light Company Limited (BELCO) today urged the public to take precautions when celebrating occasions with helium-filled ballons.
During the last month there have been two separate outages caused by foil and/or mylar helium-filled ballons coming into contact with BELCO overhead wires. Typically, when a foil helium balloon comes into contact with the high voltage overhead conductors it causes an electrical flashover or arc flash which generates a significant amount of both heat and light, followed by the overhead conductors burning through any combustible material (connections to poles etc.) and falling to the ground.
The most recent incident involving a ballon was on July 1st in Pembroke which caused more than 600 residents to be without power while broken conductors had to be repaired. When these incidents happen several hundred customers can be affected while BELCO crews carry out repairs.
BELCO Managing Director of Transmission, Distribution and Retail Shelly Leman said: “We are seeing an increase in the impacts of helium-filled ballons causing outages on our network and these incidents are entirely preventable. Not only is there the inconvenience to our customers of losing power, but these incidents can also pose a significant safety risk to members of the public if conductors are downed as a result. Ballons that are released can also have a negative impact on the marine environment as well as potentially harming birds. I urge members of the public to take precautions when using helium-filled ballons and to ensure they are not released into the environment and are disposed of responsibly.”