We are excited for our Engineer, Maurice Cueva-Eguiguren, P.E., is invited to speak at the 3rd International Caparica Conference in Translational Forensics. Maurice will be presenting a case we had involving a fire at a manufacturing plant in Brazil.
A cable splice failure in a cable associated with one of the 6 MVAR capacitor banks in an electrical substation at a manufacturing plant in Brazil caused a fire in the 88/4.16kV electrical substation. The fire caused the manufacturing plant to stop production for approximately 29 days while temporary repairs were made. The plant operates two shifts per day, seven days a week, and stops production for maintenance once a year for two weeks. The plant generates approximately $750,000 in revenue per day. The cable splice failure caused an electrical short circuit in the substation 4.16kV distribution system for approximately 120 seconds. The cable splice failure ignited the adjacent cables in the cable tray, causing damage to various sections of the 4.16kV cables, three 88kV disconnect switches, and four 88kV – 4.16kV transformers. The cable fire in the electrical substation resulted in property damages and business interruption losses with an estimated value of $20 million. The four 88kV – 4.16kV transformers that were in service at the time of the substation fire were exposed to voltage transients and electromagnetic forces produced by the short‐circuit currents for approximately 120 seconds.