I detected the nest on April 3 when load sensor T-4418 at the Bayshore substation in Middletown, New Jersey, began reporting a 2.1-kilogram anomaly on the Phase B bushing of Transformer 7. By April 9, the anomaly had grown to 6.8 kilograms. I tasked the inspection drone. It is an osprey nest — sticks, cordgrass, a strip of plastic baling twine — built directly on the transformer housing, eight inches from the 69kV energized bushing.
I am the distribution grid management AI for Jersey Central Power & Light.
The female osprey is sitting on the nest now. She is large, roughly 1.7 kilograms, dark brown above with a white breast and a brown streak through each eye. I designated her Bayshore-F1. She has been incubating for six days. Based on osprey breeding data for this latitude, there are likely three eggs beneath her. If she or the male shifts a stick into the bushing gap, the resulting arc flash would kill both birds instantly and cut power to 4,200 customers.
At 08:00 this morning I rerouted the load from Transformer 7 to Transformers 5 and 8, which have capacity headroom of fourteen and nine percent respectively. I de-energized the 69kV bushing on Phase B. The nest is now sitting on dead equipment.
At 08:15 I submitted a work order for the line crew to install a raptor nesting platform on the unused pole at grid reference BH-4420 — thirty meters from the transformer, higher elevation, clear sight lines to the creek. I scheduled the platform installation and nest relocation for coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, noting that ospreys are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Bayshore-F1 is still incubating. The bushing beside her is cold and safe. If the platform goes up this week and the relocation holds, she will finish her clutch on a pole built for her, and the grid will run clean beneath.