Power was restored to Heathrow Airport’s terminals around seven hours before flights resumed on the day it was closed by a substation fire, an investigation has found.
More than 270,000 air passenger journeys were disrupted by the closure on March 21, which led to questions over the airport's energy resilience.
An interim report by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) has found the flow of electricity to all four of the West London airport’s passenger terminals was restarted by 10.56am that day.
Flights did not resume until approximately 6pm.
The root cause of the fire that led to the airport being closed for almost an entire day is still unknown, the report said. The Metropolitan Police confirmed on March 25 that it had “found no evidence to suggest that the incident was suspicious in nature”.
Heathrow Chief executive Thomas Woldbye previously acknowledged to MPs that the airport may have been able to reopen slightly sooner, but said "the fact that the lights were on at Terminal 5, which is entirely correct, doesn’t mean the terminal was operational.
“We didn’t have all CCTV, we didn’t have fire surveillance. The fire systems would work … but the fire surveillance systems of the airport were down, so we didn’t know where the systems were up and safe. All that had to be secured before we started operation.”
NESO was commissioned by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Ofgem to conduct a review into the power cut, with a final report due by the end of June, including recommendations and lessons for the future.
Disruption
The fire sparked huge disruption to global air travel with flights cancelled and passengers stranded. More than 1,000 flights were affected, scrambling the travel plans of tens of thousands of people including passengers in the UAE.
The closure paralysed one of the world's biggest travel hubs, with about 120 flights already in the air either turned back or landing in other countries such as France, Ireland and the Netherlands.
At the time, the government said it would “look harder” into how airports can withstand shocks. Heathrow said that as an energy consumer on the scale of a small city it could not possibly have backup power for all its operations.
Heathrow is the largest airport in Europe and connects to more than 230 destinations. It serves more than 82 million passengers a year, and over 26 per cent of the UK’s exports by value.
Sequence of events
The report noted that when the fire broke out, power was lost to some airport terminals and some shared systems required for overall airport operations.
The airfield ring generators automatically started to maintain supplies to the runways and essential safety systems, maintaining the ability to land aircraft safely.
Three independent electricity points each supply different areas and systems across the airport. These were reconfigured to restore the power, but this takes significant network switching, and before the event was understood to take a number of hours to enact.
The decision to close the airport was taken at 1.11am. Engineers began to restore supply to some terminals by 2am. By 6.25am low voltage was restored across the airport network and by 10:56am power was restored to all terminals. That was followed by “a period of safety checking” to ensure “safety critical systems were fully operational before passengers arriving at the airport”. Re-energisation of the wider network was completed by 2.23pm.
The report set out the sequence of events at the nearby North Hyde electricity substation. It said that on Thursday, 20 March at 11.21pm, one of three supergrid transformers tripped, followed by an associated circuit connecting it to the wider transmission system. It was later confirmed to have caught fire. Another transformer then tripped, resulting in loss of connection to the third transformer. The consequence was the loss of all electricity supplies, impacting thousands of customers including Heathrow Airport.
Resilience
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband welcomed the interim report on Thursday, pointing out the summary of the incident ruled out the possibility of suspicious activity.
“We now await the full report to understand what happened and learn lessons to strengthen UK energy resilience and protect our critical national infrastructure,” he said.
Heathrow said the report raises “important questions” for the National Grid – which owns the substation that caught fire – and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), which is responsible for power distribution in the area.
A spokesperson said: “Heathrow welcomes the NESO review’s initial report, which raises important questions for National Grid and SSEN that we hope the final report will provide answers to, including the cause of the fire.
“Further clarity on how the fire started and why two transformers were subsequently impacted can help ensure greater resilience for the UK’s energy grid moving forward.”
NESO anticipates that the final report will make findings and recommendations on the resilience of energy infrastructure; the response and restoration of energy infrastructure; and the resilience of critical national infrastructure to energy disruption.
Fintan Slye, NESO's chief executive, said the power cut affected around 67,000 customers, a number of commercial customers and Heathrow Airport. “It is important that the right lessons are learnt from this incident to prevent future instances where possible and to manage them effectively when they do occur,” he said.
Saturday's schedule at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
GP3 race, 12:30pm
Formula 1 final practice, 2pm
Formula 1 qualifying, 5pm
Formula 2 race, 6:40pm
Performance: Sam Smith
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
More from Neighbourhood Watch
The years Ramadan fell in May
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
More on animal trafficking
Indika
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDeveloper%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2011%20Bit%20Studios%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Odd%20Meter%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EConsole%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20PlayStation%205%2C%20PC%20and%20Xbox%20series%20X%2FS%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Intercontinental Cup
Namibia v UAE Saturday Sep 16-Tuesday Sep 19
Table 1 Ireland, 89 points; 2 Afghanistan, 81; 3 Netherlands, 52; 4 Papua New Guinea, 40; 5 Hong Kong, 39; 6 Scotland, 37; 7 UAE, 27; 8 Namibia, 27
Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The five pillars of Islam
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
More on Quran memorisation:
The biog
Favourite colour: Brown
Favourite Movie: Resident Evil
Hobbies: Painting, Cooking, Imitating Voices
Favourite food: Pizza
Trivia: Was the voice of three characters in the Emirati animation, Shaabiyat Al Cartoon
More coverage from the Future Forum
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
BANGLADESH SQUAD
Mashrafe Mortaza (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim (wicketkeeper), Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan (vice captain), Mohammad Mithun, Sabbir Rahaman, Mosaddek Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Abu Jayed (Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
MORE ON INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEducatly%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2020%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EUAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMohmmed%20El%20Sonbaty%2C%20Joan%20Manuel%20and%20Abdelrahman%20Ayman%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEducation%20technology%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20size%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%242%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEnterprise%20Ireland%2C%20Egypt%20venture%2C%20Plus%20VC%2C%20HBAN%2C%20Falak%20Startups%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
The years Ramadan fell in May
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
more from Janine di Giovanni
UK%20record%20temperature
%3Cp%3E38.7C%20(101.7F)%20set%20in%20Cambridge%20in%202019%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
1st Test July 26-30 in Galle
2nd Test August 3-7 in Colombo
3rd Test August 12-16 in Pallekele
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
