Electrical Explosions Spark Power Outages in Kenner, La.

WWL-TV New Orleans ^ | 12-27-2018 | Staff of WWL TV New Orleans

[Darksheare]

Saw that.
Also in Queens NY

[Cvengr]

I’ve made a list of medium voltage events and their causes. 98% are explained by a list of about 10 explicit causes, generally colloquial. These are typically provided within 24 hrs of the event, but generally, the observed damage are secondary failures caused by more elusive sources. The following are what tends to satiate the uninformed.

Bird Strike
Rodent gnawing insulation
Pinhole in insulation
Gopher digging earth in transformer
Solar Flares
Lightning Strike
Wind induced wire slapping
Mylar Helium Balloon
Tree Limb falls on OH lines
Leaking Oil from transformer
Mechanical Failure of Vacuum Switch
Construction accident nicking an underground line.
Car accident hits utility pole.
etc

The ConEd event is interesting because backup generators didn’t energize at LaGuardia. Their ATS should have provided near seamless power to the tenants. Even if the circuit protection isn’t adequately coordinated, the damage likely would have been localized and protection relays and fusing would have kept the event to a very short duration, way less than 1 sec.

Another event in Kenner, Louisiana, on the same evening also appears anomalous. Looks like a reversed phasing issue or crossed lines as a fireball repeatedly travels down the transmission line, with other services down-line showing evidence of over-voltage failures, ...perhaps a neutral being energized by a medium voltage line frying all the local panel-boards and metallic grounded surfaces.

[MayflowerMadam]

Decades ago we were without power for several days in Anchorage. IIRC, it had to do with a bird clogging up the works in an engine or something at the Beluga Power Plant. It’s been a very long time; I hope I got the facts right.

[Pontiac]

Thank you for your well informed analysis.

The last item on your list reminds me of my former neighborhood.

At the end of my road was a convieniance store on a four lane highway near a stop light. On the road ad in the parking light was a utility pole with a transformer that served the store.

There were frequent accidents caused by motorist trying to exit the store parking lot. These accidents frequently caused cars to take out that utility pole which almost without fail caused an area power outage.

The protections on that pole were less than adequate. But that is more or less expected, in my opinion, because it was a municipal power system.