Explosion and fire gut transformers at Robertville substation in Roodepoort

What happened

In the early hours of Saturday 5 March 2022 a fire gutted at least two transformers at the Robertville substation in Roodepoort, Gauteng, South Africa. City Power said the fire began after an explosion at around 1am and that some equipment had been destroyed. Firefighters were dispatched and the fire was out by 8am. The loss of the transformers caused a complete loss of power in areas including Robertville, Wibsey Dip, Putcoton and Stormill.

City Power said its teams were on site to investigate the cause of the fire and assess the extent and cost of the damage, and that clean-up would begin once the substation had cooled and it was safe to work. The utility could not say when power would be restored and was considering back-feeding customers while the damaged equipment was repaired.

Contributing factors

The fire followed an explosion. The cause was under investigation at the time of reporting.

Lessons learned

1. Separate substation transformers with fire walls or adequate spacing so that a fire in one unit does not spread to others.
2. Plan back-feeding arrangements in advance so that customers can be reconnected quickly when a substation is lost.
3. Use transformer condition monitoring to detect developing faults before they cause an explosion.

Source

News24 (news24.com)