Duke Energy substation fire in Pinellas County cuts power to more than 15,000 customers

What happened

A fire at a Duke Energy substation at 7887 Bryan Dairy Road in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, caused a power outage on Monday 3 February 2020. Duke Energy estimated that more than 15,000 nearby customers were without power just after the incident. Aerial footage showed smoke still rising from the substation after the fire. Duke Energy said it hoped to restore service between 6.15 pm and 7.15 pm, according to its outage map, and by 6.30 pm the number of customers without power had fallen to about 1,000. The report did not state the cause of the fire, the equipment involved or the time it started, and no injuries were mentioned.

Lessons learned

1. Substations serving large numbers of customers should have enough switching flexibility to move load quickly to other sources after a fire.
2. Operators should investigate substation fires and share the findings, so similar equipment elsewhere can be checked.
3. Outage maps and restoration estimates help customers plan during an outage and should be updated as restoration progresses.

More lessons on outages, backup supply and restoration, investigation and fleet-wide checks, from every incident on the register.

Source

fox13news.com