Transformer explosion knocks out power in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn

On the evening of Thursday 28 February 2019, a 27,000 volt overhead power line came away from a utility pole in the Dyker Heights neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York, and fell to the pavement at 86th Street and 10th Avenue. Reporting linked the failure to a transformer explosion and a power outage affecting more than 1,200 customers in the surrounding blocks, reported as roughly bounded by 80th to 86th Streets between 7th and 12th Avenues. Firefighters responded just after 8pm. No injuries were reported and power was later restored. Con Edison said it was investigating the cause of the explosion. A local city councillor said he had already been calling on the utility to bury the power lines in the area.

The affected circuit was an overhead 27,000 volt distribution line rather than an underground cable. The night was reported as an ordinary cold February night, with no severe weather described. The technical cause of the line detaching from the pole and of the transformer explosion was not confirmed at the time of reporting and was under investigation by the utility.

1. Overhead medium voltage distribution lines can fail mechanically and drop live conductors to street level even without severe weather, so fault response plans should assume public exposure.
2. Community and local government requests to place exposed overhead lines underground in outage-prone areas merit engineering review by the responsible utility.
3. Where the root cause of a conductor drop and associated transformer explosion is not immediately known, publishing the investigation outcome helps other network operators judge whether the same failure mode applies to their assets.

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