Turbine fire takes half of Tararua wind farm offline for hours

What happened

A wind turbine at Mercury's Tararua wind farm near Palmerston North caught fire on a Sunday evening. A member of the public alerted emergency services, who responded around 5pm with fire crews from Ashhurst and Palmerston North. The fire was contained to the single turbine and a small number of minor ground fires nearby, all of which were quickly extinguished, with fire crews leaving the scene before 6pm. Mercury said the turbine effectively put itself out.

Half of the wind farm was taken offline while the affected turbine was removed from service, with the rest of the farm returning to full service by around 10pm that evening. There was no one near the turbine at the time and no injuries were reported. Mercury said it expected the wind farm to return to full operation the following day, excluding the affected turbine, and that the cause of the fire would be investigated.

Contributing factors

Not reported. The cause of the fire had not been determined at the time of reporting and was to be investigated.

Lessons learned

1. A turbine fire at height can self-extinguish if isolated early, so operators should plan for remote shutdown and a debris exclusion zone rather than ground-based firefighting.
2. Public reports of visible fires can trigger a faster response than site monitoring alone, so operators should maintain close ties with local emergency services.
3. Rapid removal of one turbine from the grid can keep the rest of a wind farm operating, limiting lost generation to a small share of output.

More lessons on fire suppression and firefighting, detection and monitoring, from every incident on the register.

Not yet known

• Cause of the fire
• Turbine model and age
• Duration and cost of repairs

This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.

Source

rnz.co.nz