Indorama Ventures reports transformer fire, outages

Jacob DickApril 29, 2020Updated: April 29, 2020 12:07 p.m. Comments

Indorama Ventures, which recently aquired the Huntsman plant in Port Neches, reported a Tuesday night incident near the plant was transformer explosion and fire.

The company said a transformer at a sub station managed by Entergy at the plant’s distribution yard exploded around 8 p.m. Tuesday, causing a subsequent fire. The sub station provides power to Port Neches, Groves and parts of the plant.

The company reported there weren’t any injuries or detected releases from the incident, but some units were taken offline due to power outages within the plant. Read More

The plant has recovered from the fire at the Entergy Sub Station last night,” Indorama spokesperson Krystal Medlock said in a Tuesday morning email. “Units are back on line or in the process of restarting. There have been no off-site impacts from Indorama during the outage or recovery of units.”

Indorama’s onsite fire brigade and the Port Neches Fire Department responded shortly after the explosion, and Entergy crews were soon on the scene.

Entergy said the transformer “failed,” causing the incident, but the source of the failure was still under investigation.

“Crews were able to isolate the issue and restored all customers,” Entergy spokesperson Allie Payne said in an email. “The cause is still under investigation at this time.”

Entergy’s emergency response crews spent most of Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning making similar calls, as severe weather tore through Southeast Texas and left around 20,000 people without power.

Payne said around 7,000 customers were still without power in Jefferson, Hardin and Orange counties at around 11 a.m. Wednesday.

https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Indorama-Ventures-reports-transformer-fire-15234423.php