Substation Fire Statistics

[Willo]

Technically this is probably the best place for this question but I am not sure if it will be read by too many people but here goes.

We are currently doing some work for one of the Electricity Boards. To aid the progress of the project it would be really useful to have some statistics on fires occurring in electrical substations (date, cause, substation details). Does anybody here have any suggestions on where I might find the information if it exists? The official government fire statistics tell you less than sod all. Does the attending Brigade have to perform an investigation or write a report? If so would it be difficult to get my hands on those reports? I am currently searching news reports which are accurate in terms of date and location but very rarely give any more information.

I've been surprised at how common they are and there are some interesting causes.

[kurnal]

I found Central Networks were very helpful and able to give a lot of useful info about risk factors and the number and type of incidents in their patch. This included probabilistic data. Like you I found little info elsewhere.

[wee brian]

Try Doc Sarah Colwell at BRE. She did some work on substations.

[Mike Buckley]

Yes all brigades have to carry out an investigation and file a report on the fires they attend. This is know as the FDR1 which is nowadays electronically submitted. Copies of these reports can be obtained from the brigade which attended.

The problem is you need to know the details of the date and time of the incident to get hold of the report! Very good if you are looking at a particular fire but not so good for gathering statistics on a type of fire.

[Midland Retty]

It may be worth contacting the National Grid (yes they do still exist)

Whilst sub stations are generally operated by individual electricity suppliers the National Grid will have useful contacts in those individual companies who may be able to help you further.

Plus NAtGrid will have its own historical data relating to substations as clearly they do form part of the extended network and they connect into them, and if i remember correctly they have even undertaken research in this area.

[Willo]

Guys, thank you for your suggestions, they have given me a few more avenues to go up.