Skip to main content
Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Hydrogen tank explosion at a power plant

Event

Event ID
1098
Quality
Description

Hydrogen caused an explosion at a power plant, killing two people and injuring 13 others. The station was subsequently shut down. The cause of the explosion was not reported. At first, sources reported that the incident occurred in hydrogen generation unit, later it was reported that it occurred at a hydrogen storage tank, located in a separate part of the power station and unrelated with the generator.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Hydrogen Release and Ignition
Nature of the consequences
Macro-region
Europe
Country
Kosovo
Date
Component involved
CGH2 tank (stationary)
Failure mode
rupture & ignition
Initiating cause
unknown
Root CAUSE analysis

The sources of this event claimed tentatively various causes, from lack of safety supervision to unsafe working procedures to procedural non-compliance up to contaminated hydrogen (?). None of these claims seems based on convincing evidences.

Root causes
Unknown
Date entry in HIAD
01/07/2024

Facility

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

unknown

Process temperature range [C]
ambient temperature (-50°C to +50°C)
Location type
Unknown
Location
industrial area
Operational condition
Description of the facility/unit/process/substances

The power plant covered a considerable part of the electricity needs of Kosovo.

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
2
Number of injured persons
13
Post-event summary

The power plant was closedfor a long time, and only partially re-opened.

In-depth data

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

References

Sources categories
News
Reference & weblink

RTE news of May 22, 2014:
https://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0606/622005-kosovo/
(Accessed December 2023)

Wikipedia page dedicated to the plant, mentions the incident:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_A_Power_Station
(accessed December 2023)