The large explosion at the coal-fired Kosovo A power station in Kosovo on June 6 is reported to have killed three people and injured 13 with damages to property and nearby housing.

The blast was so strong that it was heard in the capital Prishtina some 10 kilometre away. The economy minister Fadil Ismajli told Reuters that the station had been shut down and that “the accident occurred when a hydrogen tank exploded in a separate part of the power station from the electricity generators”.

Although not many technical details are available as the investigation is still going on, looking at the pictures suggest extensive damage where even the exterior walls were severely damaged. If the minister’s statement is accurate, then I assume that the hydrogen tank is inside the main building, a practise that I believe is strange whereas for safety reasons it should be outside. At the same time, the hydrogen leak must have been going on undetected for some time for the explosive mixture to form.

Hydrogen cooling was first used in 1937 in the US as an alternative to air cooling. Hydrogen’s properties of low density, high thermal conductivity and specific heat make it far more efficient than air for generator cooling and the resulting smaller generator is less expensive. However, safety systems must be intensive due to the high flammability and explosive tendency of hydrogen, as evident in the Kosovo incident.

At the risk of revealing my age, I like to tell readers that I trained for two months during the construction of the Kosovo A power station in 1962, when I was still at Manchester University through a student exchange scheme. The project involved so many companies and nationalities.

The Yugoslavs were doing civil works and overall construction. The Germans supplied the boilers. The Americans supplied the steam turbine generator sets and the British the transformers and switch gear and so on. While the Yugoslavs were the main force, suppliers of equipment retained supervisory responsibilities to ensure the proper installation and performance of their contracts.

Prishtina at that time was a small town with one main street and a couple of hotels, and therefore the foreign presence was noticeable and quite felt.

Kosovo with 15 billion tonnes of lignite coal reserve is described as the “country sits on the world’s fifth-largest reserve”, which at current consumption levels will last another 1,500 years, according to The Guardian. This is why the plant was located here to start with as part of the development of the region during the Tito era.

The Kosovo A plant capacity, which started operations late in 1962, is 450 MW and later expanded by Kosovo B of 600 MW capacity. Another 600 MW expansion, or Kosovo C, is being considered by the World Bank.

But lignite or brown coal is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat content and high water content. Its environmental impact is therefore more than other types of coal.

Reports suggest that the environmental state in and around the station leaves a lot to be desired. The EU “described the plant as the worst single source of pollution in Kosovo” and environmental groups are demanding the closure of Kosovo A, which incidentally is to be closed by 2017, or 55 years after commissioning. The same groups are also trying to stop the new expansion Kosovo C and calling for the development of renewable energy sources, especially hydro, biomass and wind.

But the World Bank, which stopped financing coal-fired power stations, has made an exemption in the case of Kosovo due to its enormous lignite resources and its not so great financial situation.

The new plant is to be coupled with the rehabilitation of Plant B to meet EU standards, raise efficiency and cut losses in the transmission and distribution network and the opening of the industry to private investment.

The territorial dispute with Serbia and the state of the electricity industry may delay private investments. Kosovo should seek aid to improve the system before offering it up to private investment. The resolution of the territorial dispute, while difficult, will go a long way in encouraging investors not only in the power industry but related fields too.

Just as important is the quick and transparent completion of the investigation of the Kosovo A incident and the immediate introduction of preventive measures to avoid unfortunate repeats.

— The writer is former head of the Energy Studies Department at the Opec Secretariat in Vienna.