Transformer fire forces Martin's Creek plant offline

What happened

On 11 September 2016, a fire broke out in a transformer yard next to Talen Energy's Martin's Creek Power Plant in Mount Bethel Township, Pennsylvania. Local firefighters put the fire out after about three hours. The plant itself was not damaged and no plant staff were injured. The following morning Talen took the plant offline as a precaution while the cause was investigated. A company spokesperson told local media the plant would be offline for a few weeks.

Contributing factors

The cause of the transformer fire had not been established when this account was published. No contributing factors were reported.

Lessons learned

1. A fire in a transformer yard beside a generating plant can still force a precautionary shutdown when the plant itself is undamaged.
2. Return to service should wait until the cause of a yard fire has been investigated and isolation of the affected equipment is confirmed.
3. Where the cause is unknown, operators should treat the length of the outage as uncertain and say so plainly.

Source

powermag.com