Malfunction Hits Key DWP Facility : Power: Converter station in Sylmar suffers $30 million in damage. Electric customers are not affected.

Malfunctioning equipment sent heavy smoke billowing from a Department of Water and Power facility in Sylmar Saturday night, causing an estimated $30 million in damage at one of the department’s most important sites, DWP and fire officials said Sunday.

There were no injuries in the incident and no outages to DWP customers, said Brian Humphrey, spokesman for the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

About 50 firefighters, including a hazardous materials unit, were sent to the Sylmar Converter Station East at 13501 San Fernando Road about 9 p.m.

“When firefighters made entry they determined that there was no visible flame,” and at first thought the smoke was the result of overheated equipment, Humphrey said.

The problem was in the thyristor valve, a two-story-high piece of equipment that converts electrical currents into a form usable in homes and businesses.

Firefighters spent more than three hours at the site, pouring water on the equipment in an effort to cool it down, Humphrey said.

Sandra Tanaka, a DWP spokeswoman, said the facility had been closed for a week because of a scheduled inspection and planned modifications.

“The electrical equipment failed during start-up testing,” Tanaka said. “Since the facility had not been operating for the past week, no customers were affected by this incident.”

The converter station is at the end of an 846-mile-long transmission line that carries energy from Celilo, Wash., to the Los Angeles area. That power is generated by a hydroelectric plant on the Columbia River. At the Sylmar facility, the electricity is converted from DC, or direct current energy, into AC, or alternating current energy, the type used in homes and businesses, said Rufus Hightower, assistant engineer of the DWP’s Power Operation and Maintenance Division.

The cause of Saturday’s incident was not known.

“What really caused this is going to be the focus of a detailed inspection,” Hightower said.

The Sylmar facility is jointly owned by the DWP, Southern California Edison and the cities of Burbank, Pasadena and Glendale. It is operated by the DWP, Tanaka said.

The DWP has not yet determined when the site will reopen, but power to customers will not be affected, she said.