Fire reported at a substation in Belgorod after an attack

What happened

On 14 October 2022 a fire was reported at a substation in Belgorod, Russia. Regional authorities described it as a 110 kW substation that caught fire after an attack on the city, and said electricity had gone off in some districts. Explosions were reported in some areas and the air defence system was reported to have been activated. Switching to a backup supply was estimated to take up to four hours.

Water supply was reported as normal, with pumps switched to other power lines. The fire was later reported extinguished and reconnection work was said to have begun. In an earlier update the same day, authorities also reported damage to five private houses, a cut power line, and partial loss of supply in the villages of Voznesenovka, Nezhegol and Marino and the settlements of Krasnoe and Leninskii. This report does not make clear whether those outages were caused by the substation fire.

Contributing factors

Regional authorities said the substation fire followed an attack on the city. The technical cause of the fire was not reported.

Lessons learned

1. Backup supplies for essential services such as water pumping can limit wider disruption when a substation is lost.
2. Pre-planned alternative feeders can shorten the time needed to restore customers after a substation fire.
3. Public updates should keep substation damage separate from wider line and property damage so the extent of the grid event is clear.

Source

pravda.com.ua