Fire at Hala Naka Road grid station in Hyderabad causes six hour outage

A fire broke out in one of three large power transformers at the Hala Naka Road 220kV grid station in Hyderabad, Pakistan in the early morning, disrupting electricity supply to the city and nine surrounding towns for approximately six hours. Eight urban feeders and ten outlying 132kV grid stations lost supply. A high voltage direct current transmission link connected to the affected system was also impacted, with knock-on effects on supply to a major nearby city. Fire crews and National Grid staff worked together to bring the blaze under control within about five hours. The damaged transformer was isolated and the network was re-energised through the two remaining transformers of the same capacity, restoring supply. National Grid ordered an investigation into the cause and stated the damaged unit would be repaired or replaced. No injuries were reported in the available account.

Not reported. National Grid stated an investigation into the cause of the fire had been ordered but no findings were available at the time of reporting.

1. Redundant transformer capacity at critical substations allows rapid restoration of supply by re-routing load through unaffected units.
2. Close coordination between grid operators, distribution utilities and fire services is essential to contain transformer fires quickly and minimise outage duration.
3. Interconnected transmission links, including HVDC systems, mean a single substation fire can have wider regional supply impacts beyond the immediate area, underscoring the need for network-wide contingency planning.

News report via Google News