#EnergyWings: this autumn, DTEK Grids DSO will install over 70 protective platforms for stork nests on the poles in three regions and in the capital

Thermal power generation04 October 2023

In Autumn 2023, DTEK Grids Distribution System Operators will relocate 71 stork nests to the special protective platforms in Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk regions and in the city of Kyiv. The first nest within this autumn event has been reinforced in the capital. Despite the war, the company continues to care about biodiversity and environment. Energy workers reinforce stork nests under the auspices of the #EnergyWings project, directed at protection and preservation of the white stork population. It complies with ESG principles and UN Global Compact Sustainable Development Goal No. 15 – “Preservation of terrestrial ecosystems”.

#EnergyWings: this autumn, DTEK Grids DSO will install over 70 protective platforms for stork nests on the poles in three regions and in the capital

The first stork nest within the #EnergyWings autumn event was reinforced by DTEK Kyiv Grids energy workers in Kyiv. The birds are now safe from electrocution, and customers – from power outage due to falling of the nest on the wires. A sticker on the pole with QR code and a link to the project attests to the fact that energy workers took care of safety of the nest.

“Despite the war, DTEK continues to develop grids infrastructure based on the sustainable development principles. Our goal is to provide quality European-level power supply services to Ukrainians, while being as environmental-friendly as possible. Today, we reinforced a stork nest in the Bortnychi residential neighborhood. We placed it on a special protective platform. Now it will hold firmly on the pole, not slipping on the wires, and when the storks return from warmer climes it will help protect them from electrocution. In addition, it will help minimize emergencies and power outages at our customers in the Bortnychi residential neighborhood,” – noted DTEK Kyiv Grids CEO Denys Bondar.

In October-December 2023, DTEK Grids DSO plan to reinforce a total of 71 protective structures for stork nests in Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as in the city of Kyiv. Despite war and constant risks of grids destruction, the company finds ways to fulfil its obligations regarding protection of biodiversity within the UN Global Compact.

Over the past 10 years, DTEK Grids energy workers have already reinforced 507 stork nests on the poles, thus helping to protect at least 10,000 specimens of this bird, totemic for Ukrainians. The company welcomes all interested Ukrainians to join the #EnergyWings project. For instance, it can be done by informing about a discovered nest in the regions of businesses presence.

Let us remind that since July 2023, DTEK Grids DSO websites provide an opportunity to inform about discovered stork nests on the poles, and about number and condition of birds in them. This has already helped energy workers promptly find out where exactly new nests have appeared in order to further reinforce them with protective platforms, and forward important data about the storks to ornithologists. It was this feature on the company’s website that the customers used to inform energy workers about a nest on the pole in the Bortnychi neighborhood of the capital.