Fire destroys 150MVA transformer at Nigerian grid substation in Benin

What happened

A 150MVA transformer belonging to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) exploded and caught fire at the 330/132/33KVA substation on Sapele Road in Benin, Edo State, at about 8am on Sunday, according to an eyewitness and a TCN member of staff quoted anonymously. An eyewitness said the state fire service was not present in the early stages of the fire. Firefighters from the Niger Delta Power Holding Company fire station arrived about three and a half hours after the fire started, and were joined by responders from the Nigerian Army, the Air Force, the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and the Delta State Fire Service to put out the fire. The cause of the fire was not known at the time of reporting, and TCN management could not be reached for comment.

Contributing factors

An eyewitness said the substation, which is reported to control supply across more than two states, had no firefighting equipment of its own, and that external firefighting help did not arrive for about three and a half hours. No official cause or findings had been published at the time of reporting.

Lessons learned

1. A substation serving multiple states needs its own firefighting equipment on site.
2. External response to a transformer fire took three and a half hours to arrive.
3. Publish root cause findings from transformer fires so other operators can act.

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

Not yet known

• Cause of the fire
• Transformer model and age
• Length of supply outage
• Cost of repairs

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

Source

guardian.ng