DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids saved around 200 white storks over the last year

“DTEK is a conscious business. Conservation of biodiversity is one of our focus areas, which is in line with the DTEK Strategy 2030 based on ESG principles, values and business responsibility for progress in achieving the sustainable development goals set by the UN Global Compact. The company joined this initiative in 2020. We plan to install 50 more such nesting platforms for storks,” says Vitalii Shaida, DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids CEO.

According to ecologists, such an initiative taken by DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids has saved about 200 white storks, 120 of which are chicks.

Special design not only safeguards rare and endangered birds from death, but also secures the grid infrastructure.

The weight of a stork nest built on a power line pole varies between 200 and 500 kg. Such a heavy structure puts the birds at risk because of the electrocution hazard. Besides, it poses a risk to the customers who will be blacked out if the nest slides onto the wires and breaks them. The artificial nesting platform for storks is a strong basket made of metal rods. It lifts the nest above the power line, and withstands the weight of both the nest and the birds.

In addition to the nesting platforms for storks, DTEK Kyiv Regional Grids installs bird protection devices on power lines that impedes landing and nesting on the lines. Thus, both the birds and the lines are safe. The company installed 671 pcs of such devices in 2020.

As reported previously, Kyiv Regional Grids installed more than 2,000 eco-friendly lamps in 2020. They are safe, efficient, and free of substances that are harmful to people and environment. Over the recent years, the company replaced 37% of lighting fixtures that contain mercury.

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Storks often nest on electric poles. Usually, birds use a nest for only for a few years, because the older the nest, the bigger it becomes in diameter and weight. Some nests weigh several centners. Not only storks with chicks live there, but also various small birds, such as sparrows, wagtails, starlings, etc. When the nest reaches a critical mass, it collapses, which often entails the death of birds and break of power line wires. Since 2013, DTEK Grids has been installing artificial metal structures on power poles - nesting platforms for birds, which protect them from collapse. For 8 years, DTEK Grids has installed 248 metal nesting platforms for storks across Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kyiv and Odesa Regions, as well as in the city of Kyiv. This initiative taken by the company is in line with DTEK's 2030 strategy based on ESG principles, values and business responsibility for progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Global Compact to conserve terrestrial ecosystems.

* The Berne Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats entered into force on January 1, 1982 and since then 51 parties have joined to it, including the European Union. Ukraine joined the Convention in 1996. The Berne Convention is the main environmental law in Europe, and serves as a basis for almost all environmental conventions of our continent, environmental legislation of most European countries and environmental directives of the European Union.