Investigation ordered into power outage that closed Heathrow
- The British government ordered an investigation into energy resilience after a substation fire shut down Heathrow Airport for nearly 18 hours, affecting over 200,000 passengers and resulting in over 1,300 flight cancellations.
- Energy Secretary Ed Miliband requested that the National Energy System Operator urgently investigate the fire to learn wider lessons for energy resilience in critical infrastructure, with initial findings expected in six weeks.
- Heathrow's Chief Executive stated that the backup power supply worked as intended but was insufficient to operate the entire airport, which uses energy comparable to a small city.
- The Metropolitan Police concluded that the fire is not suspicious, and investigations will continue with partners including the London Fire Brigade and National Grid.
166 Articles
166 Articles
Heathrow Airport Transformer Fire Prompts Urgent Inquiry, Exposes Cracks in Grid Resilience
One week after a catastrophic fire at the North Hyde electrical substation plunged the UK’s flagship Heathrow Airport into chaos, questions are mounting about what went wrong—and what the incident […] The post Heathrow Airport Transformer Fire Prompts Urgent Inquiry, Exposes Cracks in Grid Resilience appeared first on POWER Magazine.
Who really started the Heathrow fire?
The most logical way of looking at the fire at the busiest airport hub in the world, is to ask who benefits the most from it. Clue: it isn't Russia. The Heathrow airport fire took everyone by surprise as such events are not supposed to happen, given the safeguards in place in and round airports. Heathrow has its own electricity supply from the grid, which, on the day failed and so a seamless switch to a massive Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) w…


A Fire Plunged Heathrow Into Darkness. A Nearby Data Center Kept Humming. Why?
A gleaming new data center sits less than half a mile from the electric substation where a fire plunged Heathrow Airport into darkness last week. The data center’s own power was also cut that day. But no one who relied on it would have noticed, thanks to a bank of batteries and backup generators designed to kick in instantly. Meanwhile it took officials at Europe’s busiest airport close to 18 hours to bring its terminals and runways back into op…
The fire was declared on Thursday night at an electric transformer station in Hayes, West London. The police had indicated as early as Friday that they had not found "a sign of intentional act"
U.K. police say no evidence of criminality in Heathrow Airport fire
British police said the substation fire, which caused Heathrow Airport to shut down for 18 hours last week, was no longer being treated as a potentially criminal matter after inquiries found no evidence to suggest the incident was suspicious.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 56% of the sources are Center
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium