The megawatt step up transformers I’m familiar with all had pressure and level sensors installed. If either sensor indicated an issue, action was taken right away.
Dropping this a bit early today. Have to be out later.
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Most of the larger station transformers, even the smaller ones now days, have oil level warning alarms sent to the operations control center so that personnel can be dispatched. Also, low gas pressure alarms, which are non-critical, temperature alarms, etc. My guess was that temperature wasn’t an issue in this situation.
It’s purely speculation, but I doubt that temperature ever became critical in the transformers. I think they faulted internally when the insulating oil dropped below the windings. The oil not only cools the transformer, but it an insulating medium as well.
Response to a low oil alarm, if that wasn’t disabled by the thuggish vagrants, on a Saturday evening would have resulted in an alarm at the dispatch/control center, who would then contact either directly, or through a field supervisor/foreman, personnel to head to the station to investigate. Depending on the location, that could be half an hour to 2 hours for someone to show up. Some substations seem to be located where no man has gone before.
So if they shot up the radiators and oil flow was sufficiently high, then the oil could drain low enough to trip the transformers well before personnel showed up on sight to inspect. Not that they could have prevented the tripping, if the holes were already there, but they could have opened up the breakers to remove energy from the transformers so that there was no chance of internal fault. They would have had to damage both main transformers in my scenario, because there is no doubt that the station is designed so that one transformer can cover for the other. Industry standard design.
And my thought is that it is the transformers that are the problem, and I say that because I saw some video of them rolling in what we call a “mobile” transformer, one built onto a tractor trailer, that can be put into service to carry some of the burden. Takes about 18-24 hours to get one in service, depending on what needs to be set up, connected, calibrated, etc. And odds are, the mobile transformer is considerably smaller than the main station transformers, so it would not be sufficient to restore all customer loads. But it would be very helpful.
One thing to note - the “gate” that they keep showing being torn down and laying on the ground is not the main gate to the fenced-in station property - it is a driveway gate that sits out closer to the road. You can see it on street view on google maps, kind of back from the road. The main fence gate, which they may not have breached, is heavy-duty chain-link, probably barbed wire along the top, and secured by a heavy padlock, or (we’re starting to use now) key-card and biometric lock mechanism.
Another thing to note - the industry is using a lot more video monitoring of their assets, especially major substations, and I suspect that this one had cameras up in various parts of the yard. However, if they could do their deed from 200 yards away in the nearby woods, they may not have gotten close enough to the cameras for recognition. Of course, there are other tools that can determine who was in the area.