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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Fire at a generator of a power plant

Event

Event ID
1019
Quality
Description
There was a massive explosion at one of the generator-turbine units of a coal-based power station.
Undetected hydrogen leak from the generator was identified as a major trigger.
According to the news, some workers, unaware of the leak, were trying to fix some dirt blocks and loose nuts and bearings in the generator. Just below was an oil tank. Fire sparked spread in minutes up to 16 metres, setting off the blast “with a heavy noise”.
It took hours to control the fire. Four persons were injured.
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Asia
Country
India
Date
How was it involved?
Leak & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
Initiating cause
Unknown
Root causes
Root CAUSE analysis
The INITATING CAUSE of the leak is unknown.

The released hydrogen ignited possibly because of the activities of workers using non spark-free tools. Escalation may have occurred due to the proximity of an oil tank. There are also doubts on the proper or effective actions of the fire extinguisher.
The ROOT CAUSE could be attributed in general to lack of safety measures, procedures and/or practices. Why were the workers not equipped with detectors?

Facility

Application
Power Plant
Sub-application
coal-fired power plant
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected
turbine, Colling system
Location type
Confined
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational condition
Pre-event occurrences
According to the news, some workers, unaware of the leak, were trying to fix some dirt blocks and loose nuts and bearings in the generator.

Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
DESCRIPTION OF THE FACILITY
The turbine-generator affected was a 500 megawatt and was commissioned in 2011. Hydrogen was used as coolant.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
4
Number of fatalities
0

Lesson Learnt

Lesson Learnt

Undetected releases of hydrogen used as cooling agent of a turbine or generator are often the cause or contributor to sever damage of the unit (se for example HIAD event 1000).
A procedure of the plant affected by this incident foresaw a shut-down in case of hydrogen leakage, but the plant was not shut-down. In this particular case it is unclear if the hydrogen leak had been checked and detected. Anyhow, the unit was not shut down before escalation took place.

Event Nature

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Presumed ignition source
Mechanical sparks
High pressure explosion
N
High voltage explosion
N

References

Reference & weblink

DownToEarth.co news of 14/11/2019<br />
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/energy/blast-in-anpara-d-power-stat… />
(accessed December 2019)

JRC assessment