US EditionHeathrow substation fire caused by moisture in electrics: Report
- A fire on March 20 at National Grid's 275kV North Hyde substation caused a power outage that closed London's Heathrow Airport for nearly a day on March 21.
- The fire was triggered by a catastrophic failure in a transformer's high voltage bushing, which a forensic investigation linked to moisture infiltration that led to a short circuit; this problem had been identified through oil testing in 2018 but remained unresolved.
- The outage disrupted Heathrow's operations and affected over 70,000 other customers, while datacenters served by the substation maintained service using backup generators.
- Ed Miliband, the Energy Minister, described the National Energy System Operator's report on the incident as "deeply concerning," emphasizing that the National Grid had failed to address known risks.
- A review led by Ruth Kelly identified 28 improvement recommendations to enhance Britain's energy infrastructure resilience, with work underway and Ofgem launching an enforcement investigation into possible licence breaches.
108 Articles
108 Articles
Report: Heathrow Emergency Was Entirely Avoidable
How much chaos can an instance of deferred maintenance cause? The UK's National Grid is finding out. A fire that shut down London's Heathrow Airport for more than 16 hours in March has been traced to a transformer fault first flagged by the local power provider seven years earlier, according...
Fire That Led to Heathrow Airport Shutdown Caused by Poor Maintenance: Report
A fire that shut down London’s Heathrow Airport in March was caused by a failure to maintain an electricity substation, an official report released July 2 states. The closure of Europe’s busiest airport cost airlines tens of millions of dollars and left thousands of passengers stranded. At the time, there was widespread speculation in the media that the fire had been caused by Russian sabotage. However, the report by the National Energy System O…
The UK's energy system operator points to "obsolete regulation" and "inadequate safety mechanisms" after the 21 March fire at one of the world's largest airports.
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