Incident

This is from the Marchwood Power Project (generating station) in Southampton, England. I received a report on the subject a while ago and also my good friend Mike Frain (posts on the forum from the U.K.) has also had some contact regarding this event.

The report that I have states it happened on March 4, 2009 at 8:40 AM. Three people were involved, one with minor burn injury and two with more substantial injury (second degree was noted in the summary report). They were attempting to obtain breaker info and someone tried to remove the breaker. - apparently not quite knowing what they were doing.

I've just had word back from Marchwood Power Station and it seems as though the incident actually occurred at a waste to heat site near Heathrow Airport, London. I'll try to follow this up after the Easter holidays to see if there is any further information available. The initial report came from an international contractor working at Marchwood on the commissioning of the station. The report said

"Just a reminder of what can happen if the PTW system is not followed correctly......This incident took place while the contractor asked for getting Breaker information. However; they did not take a work permit and tried to remove the breaker without permission that caused an electrical flash over. This incident gives us a lesson will be discussed and communicate with all of us to avoid such incident to occur.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On 03/04/2009 at 08:40 hours an electrical flashover was reported while the contractor was trying to find the information regarding 480 KV breakers. This resulted in injuring three contractors employees; one with first degree burn and two with 2nd degree burns. All the victims were transported to clinic for first aid treatment and then transported to Care Hospital for further examination and treatment."

I'm still a bit confused as the 480kV probably means 480volts but this is not a standard voltage in the UK. The other issue is that information of an incident that is probably under investigation by the authorities does not appear so quickly in the public domain here. It is however a solemn reminder of what can go wrong on an ordinary piece of low voltage equipment. Mike

My suspicions seem to be correct that this is not a UK incident. ( quote -- "I'm still a bit confused as the 480kV probably means 480volts but this is not a standard voltage in the UK. The other issue is that information of an incident that is probably under investigation by the authorities does not appear so quickly in the public domain here.") It seems to have happened in Riyadh. I've asked to confirm that the information is public domain just in case and will update everybody. Mike

Send me a message with your email and I'll post you a copy of the pdf. regards, Mike