Substation fire leaves around nine thousand Essex customers without power

What happened

A fire broke out at an electricity substation on Gardiners Lane South in Basildon, Essex, at about 10.18pm on 1 September 2022, according to UK Power Networks, the local distribution network operator. The incident interrupted supplies to around nine thousand customers across Wickford and Basildon. Residents reported the power loss on social media before the operator confirmed the incident. The operator said engineers restored supplies in stages, with all but 132 customers back on by 10.46pm and the final five customers restored at 11.27pm the same night.

The operator said the damage to its electrical equipment was being assessed. Separately, an underground cable fault in Wickford cut power to 26 customers that morning, which the operator repaired by 11am.

Contributing factors

The source does not state the cause of the substation fire. The operator said the damage to its electrical equipment was still being assessed.

Lessons learned

1. In this incident, staged restoration by engineers brought most affected customers back within half an hour, so restoration plans for substation faults should be rehearsed.
2. Network operators should monitor social media and customer reports as an early warning of supply loss, since residents raised the alarm before the operator confirmed the incident.
3. Operators should publish clear damage assessments and root cause findings after substation fires so that other operators can check their own equipment.

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

Source

echo-news.co.uk