20150713 Brunei Fire at power station causes temporary outage
Brunei Jul 13 2015 “Other”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Fire at power station causes temporary outage
Updated: 2015-07-13-12:00
Fire and Rescue Department personnel battling the blaze at the Gadong Power Station II.
Smoke rises from the fire at the Gadong Power Station II
A FIRE broke out at Gadong Power Station II yesterday, resulting in temporary power outages in the Gadong commercial area as well as in Mentiri and Rimba.
The Fire and Rescue Department said that it first received a call about an electrical fire at the power station at 3.08pm, and deployed seven fire engines and 32 personnel from the Beribi, Bandar Seri Begawan, Berakas and Rimba fire stations.
The department said that the fire was brought under control within 25 minutes, while the cause and losses sustained are still being determined. No injuries have been reported.
Speaking to reporters at the scene, Haji Musa bin Metali, Director of the Department of Electrical Services (DES), said, “This is a power transformer that delivers power from the gas turbine, which generates the power and delivers it into another transformer for distribution of power to Gadong, Bandar.”
Explaining what happened, he said, “A power transformer which was under maintenance caught fire. This transformer contains 20,000 litres of oil inside its tank, so what is burning is the oil.
“The system has been isolated, there is no electrical connection now from the transformer,” he added.
While the surrounding areas of Gadong were affected, power outages were also reported in the areas of Mentiri and Rimba, though this was not caused by the fire. The power in these areas was instead turned off as a precautionary measure.
“We have backup power; in fact we have four more transformers and only two transformers are required, therefore we have 100 per cent contingency. This 25 megawatt unit is estimated to power around 20,000 houses,” the director said.
The Minister of Energy at the Prime Minister’s Office, Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Haji Mohammad Yasmin bin Haji Umar, told reporters at the scene yesterday that, “We shut down the power to The Mall,
Gadong as a precaution. Within the next half an hour everything will be back to normal.
“As of now we have enough power for the rest of Brunei – our power requirement is only peaking at 420 megawatts and we have more than 700 megawatts – so we have nothing to worry about,” he assured the public.
“This fire will come under immediate investigation. We have people from the Fire and Rescue Department doing their investigation, as well as our own internal investigators under the Energy Department getting involved in an enquiry. Once we have completed the enquiry and established the cause of the fire, we will definitely inform everybody.
“We need enquiries done as soon as possible so that we will establish the cause of the fire, as both of our senior engineers have said.”
At press time, it was reported that power had been restored to the affected areas.
Web Source： Borneo Bulletin
http://borneobulletin.com.bn/fire-at-power-station-causes-temporary-outage/