UK energy secretary Ed Miliband has commissioned an investigation into the power outage at Heathrow airport on Friday.
“The loss of power to the Heathrow area has caused major disruption to thousands of people and many businesses,” he said. “We are determined to properly understand what happened and what lessons need to be learned.”
The independent National Energy System Operator (NESO) will carry out the investigation into the cause of the power cut, after power was restored to affected customers yesterday.
Kathryn Porter, an energy consultant at Watt-Logic, wrote that the power outage was caused when a fire broke out on Thursday night, destroying a transformer on the site. The incident cut supplies to more than 60,000 homes and businesses.
She warned that “legacy electricity infrastructure” in the UK is “old and in need of updating”, adding that mechanical mistakes, sabotage and weather can all play a role in substation fires.
NESO chief executive Fintan Slye said: “We will now work with all relevant stakeholders to understand the lessons that can be learned to improve future resilience of Great Britain’s energy system.”
The system operator is expected to report initial findings to Ofgem and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) within six weeks.
Miliband said the investigation will seek “to understand any wider lessons to be learned on energy resilience for critical national infrastructure, both now and in the future”.
NESO will use the incident to assess the UK’s energy resilience more broadly, DESNZ said in a statement.
Plan for change
Miliband launched the investigation in collaboration with Ofgem through the power of the Energy Act.
The cabinet office is also running a resilience review separately that is ongoing and due to conclude in the spring.
“The government is determined to do everything it can to prevent a repeat of what happened at Heathrow,” Miliband said. “This review will be an important step in helping us to do so, as we deliver our Plan for Change.”
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said the incident had caused “significant disruption” but that National Grid, the airport and emergency services collaborated to rectify the situation.
Ofgem’s director general for infrastructure Akshay Kaul said the energy regulator will work with government to ensure the review puts steps in place to avoid a repeat incident of that scale.
“We saw yesterday the huge disruption that comes when energy supply is disrupted, and it’s important we now understand how that happened,” said Akshay Kaul, director general for infrastructure at Ofgem.
“Households and businesses should be able to have confidence in the resilience of critical national infrastructure.”
