Skip to main content
Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Fire at a generator of a power plant

Event

Event ID
276
Quality
Description

A leak of a compression fitting lead to the build up of an explosive air/hydrogen mixture in the generator pit. The ignition of the mixture was caused by corona discharge.
The resultant explosion caused substantial damage to generator and structure.
No injuries to personnel.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
Date
Component involved
H2 coolant system
Failure mode
internal leak
Initiating cause
unknown
Root CAUSE analysis

The INITIATING cause was a leaking fitting.
Nothing can be said on the root cause

Root causes
Date entry in HIAD
28/02/2009

Facility

Application
Power plant
Sub-application
unspecified power plant
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

generator

Process temperature range [C]
Above ambient temperature (50°C to 100°C)
Location type
Confined
Location
unknown
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
1
Emergency action

The fire was extinguished by fire brigade (probably belonging to the plant).

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Release temperature [°C]
25
Probable IGNITION SOURCE
Explosion type

References

Sources categories
HSE
Reference & weblink

Event description provided by HSE, original source confidential