Technician killed in explosion at Roodepoort mini-substation during fault repair

What happened

A City Power technician was killed in an explosion at a mini-substation in Wilro Park, Roodepoort, on the morning of Thursday 28 July 2022. Wilro Park had an outage, and two technicians were working in Molopo Street to find the fault when a switch blew up. One technician was badly injured, and paramedics certified him dead at the scene. The condition of the second technician was not reported. City Power said it would investigate the incident and the cause of the explosion, and that it would support the family of the deceased worker.

Contributing factors

The source does not state the cause of the explosion. City Power has said an investigation will be conducted into the incident and the cause.

Lessons learned

1. Fault-finding after an outage can still involve switchgear that fails violently, so isolation and the status of the equipment should be confirmed before hands-on work.
2. People tracing a fault at a mini-substation should plan for an equipment failure, including who is close to the switch and how they will withdraw.
3. Do not treat the cause as known until the operator's investigation reports it, and record the condition of everyone who was working at the site.

More lessons on maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, from every incident on the register.

Source

timeslive.co.za