Fire at substation for Institute chemical site causes shutdown

What happened

Late on 10 July 2024 a fire started in a transformer at the electrical substation serving the Altivia chemical site in Institute. Emergency management said the fire did not spread beyond the substation and that oil in onsite transformers burned itself out. The chemical facility carried out a shutdown procedure after loss of onsite power. No injuries were reported, and no offsite consequences were reported.

Contributing factors

The cause of the transformer fire was not reported.

Lessons learned

1. A fire confined to an onsite substation can still force a plant shutdown through loss of site power.
2. Check that a transformer oil fire has not spread, and record whether injuries or offsite consequences occurred.
3. Keep a shutdown procedure ready for sudden loss of onsite electrical supply.

Source

wvgazettemail.com