HERMITAGE, Pa. - In Mercer County, the Pennsylvania Power Company is installing new interior substation fencing at locations in Hermitage and Sharon. 

The new fencing will help to deter animals, keeping them safe and preventing equipment interference that can cause outages. 

These improvements are part of Penn Power's 2016-2020 Long-Term Infrastructure Improvement Plan. 

The installation has already been completed at one substation, with the others slated to be completed by the end of this year. 

"Climbing animals present one of the greatest threats to substation operation and electric service reliability," said Ed Shuttleworth, regional president of Penn Power and Ohio Edison. "A single substation outage can cost thousands of dollars in equipment damage and hundreds of man-hours to repair as well as causing extended outages for customers served by that circuit. The special fencing was an economical solution to prevent these types of service disruptions in the future."

Penn Power said that unlike other types of deterrents, this special fencing would completely prevent climbing animals from reaching the equipment. 

This fencing has already been used in Maryland and has led to a sharp decline in substation outages due to animals.