Bluff substation explosion leaves residents without power

What happened

A local report published on 12 February 2019 says a substation in Yardley Avenue, in the Bluff, exploded moments after electricity returned to Malbourough Park following load-shedding. The report describes billowing smoke and towering flames, and says residents were left without power. Electricians from eThekwini Municipality were reported to have arrived in the morning and begun repairs to the badly damaged substation. The municipality had been asked for comment and none had been received when the report was published. The cause, any injuries, how many customers were affected, and how long the outage lasted were not reported.

Contributing factors

Not reported. The explosion was described as happening moments after supply returned following load-shedding. No cause was confirmed, and the municipality had not commented.

Lessons learned

1. A failure that follows the return of supply after load-shedding is a prompt to review switching, protection and equipment condition, without treating the timing as proof of cause.
2. Early, clear information on how long an outage may last matters to residents who depend on electricity, including for medical equipment, even while damage is still being assessed.
3. A single short report cannot fix the failure mode; what is found during repair should be recorded once the work is complete.

More lessons on electrical protection and isolation, outages, backup supply and restoration, from every incident on the register.

Not yet known

• Cause of the explosion
• Duration of the outage
• Cost of repairs

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

Source

citizen.co.za