Contact
Insight Posted 7th March 2023

Plants have feelings too!

Some plants emit ultrasonic sounds when stressed, and our PD survey kit once picked one up on site. Here's how to tell plant noise apart from real partial discharge.
Graph showing ultrasonic sound detection, alongside a cartoon character and a plant image.
Brad Monaghan

Plants have feelings too!

Did you know certain plants actually emit ultrasonic sounds under stressful situations such as during a drought or when their stems are cut off?

These sounds are comparable to a squeal for help. However, will be at a much higher frequency (likely from 20kHz to 100kHz) than human ears can pick up.

We were able to witness this on-site whilst conducting a partial discharge (PD) survey of high voltage (HV) assets when our PD monitoring device picked up on an unknown source of ultrasonic interference. After some poking around, it turned out to be coming from a nearby plant.

Ultrasonic sounds from plants can be a source of interference whilst condition monitoring HV assets in the outdoors. It is easily differentiated from PD by the sound characteristic, directionality and PRPD pattern. Listen to our 10-seconds short clip above.

Free Guide
The growing gap between energy awareness and demand

The whitepaper explores the growing gap between consumers’ efforts to reduce energy use and rising electricity demand, highlighting why smarter, more visible and flexible LV networks are essential as EVs, heat pumps and distributed energy resources accelerate electrification.

Download here
Consumer Energy Trends Whitepaper
Consumer Energy Trends whitepaper cover