Posted on 04/26/2011 12:25:39 PM PDT by DallasDeb
TEXAS CITY, Texas (AP) — Three refineries, including a BP unit where a 2005 explosion killed 15 people, and a Dow Chemical plant lost electricity in outages that led to shelter-in-place emergency alerts and the cancellation of public schools Tuesday in Texas City.
The source of the power outages was still being sought, emergency officials said.
A second shelter-in-place alert, advising residents to stay indoors, was issued around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday after a Valero refinery also lost power, Texas City Homeland Security coordinator Bruce Clawson said.
A BP refinery, site of the deadly March 2005 accident that also left 170 people hurt, and the Dow Chemical plant lost power around 11 p.m. Monday. The initial shelter-in-place order took effect after those two outages, but was lifted around 3 a.m. Tuesday, Clawson said.
Around 4:40 a.m. Tuesday, electricity was lost at the Valero and Marathon Oil refineries, which activated their flare systems, the Galveston County Daily News reported.
Marathon quickly brought its power situation under control, Clawson said.
BP spokesman Michael Marr said a fire broke out at the refinery shortly after the power went out but crews were able to put it out. There were no injuries at the refinery, Marr said.
The city and BP reported no emissions of hazardous materials in the area, said George Fuller, assistant emergency management coordinator for the city.
"There was constant monitoring going on at all times and it did not reveal anything, although there's a strong smell of hydrocarbons in the air," Clawson told The Associated Press.
At the BP plant, workers were seen going into the plant around sunrise Tuesday, reporting for their shifts
It is not electronic equipment. It is plant distribution power lines like you have running overhead through a neighborhood. Those insulators require washing in coastal areas. They are bought with extra distance (surface area) in that environment.
If there is not rain, many place actually have a washing program with hoses.
More likely that only one had serious fault and there was a cascading outage before the systems could be isolated.
You sound like a man who knows based on your profile. Thanks for the info.
I've bought those insulators for that area. I've instructed plant engineers how to estimate when to hire a washing crew.
And I used to watch the morning dew cause minor arcs from my beach house after a dry spell in the pre-dawn light.
“I hate to sound like a conspiracy nut”
Why? Our government runs on conspiracies.
“And I used to watch the morning dew cause minor arcs from my beach house after a dry spell in the pre-dawn light.”
Ahh - those romantic memories.
More than likely it’s due to a salt buildup on the power lines.
It’s been so dry here in Texas there has been no rain to wash the salt off of the lines so it will build up.
When you do get moisture on the lines it will short them out.
It’s common on the coast.
Hmmm...
From your posts, I get the ‘feeling’ of “No big deal - nothing to see here”, - how does that square with these details from the article??
” outages that led to shelter-in-place emergency alerts and the cancellation of public schools Tuesday in Texas City.”
” A second shelter-in-place alert, advising residents to stay indoors, was issued around 5:30 a.m. “
” Around 4:40 a.m. Tuesday, electricity was lost at the Valero and Marathon Oil refineries, which activated their flare systems,”
” BP spokesman Michael Marr said a fire broke out at the refinery “
“There was constant monitoring going on at all times and it did not reveal anything, although there’s a strong smell of hydrocarbons in the air,”
///
Even though, apparently, everything was pretty much brought under control, these details seem, to me, to add up to something more than “no big deal”.....
Refineries don’t have very efficient off switches.
There is a lot of product moving through the systems at significant heat and pressures. Some of those refineries have combined chemical units that have toxic components.
Sending large amounts to flares is the reality of an unscheduled shutdown.
Normal shutdown to avoid the flares would take a couple shifts for a whole refinery at the fastest.
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