Ace Business Desk – In short, a fire at an electrical substation that forced a shutdown at London’s Heathrow Airport in March was likely caused by problems first flagged in 2018, a report says.
The National Energy System Operator report said water entering a transformer and causing a short circuit “most likely” started the fire.
What’s next?
Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem has launched an investigation in the wake of the report.
A fire at an electrical substation that forced a shutdown at London’s Heathrow Airport in March was likely caused by problems first flagged in 2018, a report says.
The National Energy System Operator report said water entering a transformer and causing a short circuit “most likely” started the fire.
It added elevated moisture readings were detected in July 2018, but “mitigating actions appropriate to its severity were not implemented”.Loading…
UK Energy Minister Ed Miliband labelled the report “deeply concerning”.
“Known risks were not addressed by the National Grid Electricity Transmission,” he said in a statement.
He said in the wake of the report, Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem had launched an enforcement investigation into National Grid Electricity Transmission, which owns and maintains the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales.
Report concludes ‘catastrophic failure’ behind fire
The fire broke out at the North Hyde substation in West London, more than 3 kilometres north of Heathrow, at 11:21pm on March 20.
It sparked a complete loss of power supply to part of the airport’s private internal electrical distribution network.
Smoke rises from the North Hyde electrical substation after the fire. (AP Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth)normal
The airport, which is the busiest in Europe, was closed for most of March 21, affecting thousands of passengers around the world and costing airlines millions in lost revenue.
The incident raised serious concerns about the reliability of one of the UK’s most critical pieces of infrastructure.
Using forensic analysis from the National Grid and London Fire Brigade, the report concluded “a catastrophic failure” on high voltage “bushing” components caused a fire to ignite on the transformer.
The airport closure impacted thousands of passengers. (AP Photo: Kin Cheung)normal
“This was most likely caused by moisture entering the bushing, causing an electrical fault,” it said.
“The electricity likely then ‘arced’ [causing sparks] which combined with air and heat to ignite the oil, resulting in a fire.”
‘Important lessons to be learnt’
The report said National Grid controls in place were not effective and failed to identify action had not been taken in relation to elevated moisture readings in 2018.
A National Grid spokesperson said the company had a comprehensive asset inspection and maintenance program in place, adding it had taken further action since the fire.Loading…
“There are important lessons to be learnt about cross-sector resilience and the need for increased coordination,” the spokesperson said.
Ofgem said the review had “established that the root cause of the fire was a preventable, technical fault”.
It plans to review whether National Grid complied with the relevant legislation and licence conditions relating to the development and maintenance of its electricity system close to Heathrow.
The regulator said it would also commission an independent audit into National Grid assets to review whether the failings were a one-off or systemic.
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