Substation fire leaves parts of Sinoville in darkness

What happened

Parts of Sinoville, Tshwane, South Africa, were left without power from Monday night, 26 February 2024, after a substation caught fire. According to the City of Tshwane, panel 12 in the substation blew up when power was restored following scheduled load-shedding, cutting supply to the areas the substation feeds. Tshwane emergency services was notified and sent resources to the scene. The fire was out by Monday night, but the temperature of the other panels remained high, so technicians had to wait for the substation to cool before cleaning and testing began on Tuesday 27 February. The entire substation was isolated from the Wonderboom primary distribution station. The city said the estimated time for restoring supply was not yet known.

Contributing factors

The source reports that panel 12 failed as power was restored after scheduled load-shedding. It does not state the cause of the fire. High temperatures on the other panels delayed the start of repair work.

Lessons learned

1. Re-energising equipment after load-shedding can stress switchgear, so utilities should plan controlled restoration and monitor equipment closely on restart.
2. Equipment that has overheated may need time to cool before inspection, so restoration plans should allow for this thermal delay.
3. Where restoration times cannot yet be estimated, keep affected customers informed with regular updates.

More lessons on detection and monitoring, maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, outages, backup supply and restoration, from every incident on the register.

Source

citizen.co.za