NESO’s Heathrow power outage report shows critical importance of network resiliency and our members’ work

The underlining cause of the fire at a substation, which lead to a major power outage at Heathrow Airport remains unknown, according to an interim report published by the National Energy System Operator.

London Fire Brigade and National Grid Electricity Transmission are continuing to conduct forensic investigations into the cause, says NESO, adding that the Met Police has found no evidence to suggest anything suspicious.

It was a fire at the North Hyde Substation late into the night on 20 March that led to the closure of Heathrow for most of the subsequent day, 21 March.

NESO’s final report will be published by the end of June, and it is anticipated that it will include recommendations on:

• the resilience of energy infrastructure;
• the response and restoration of energy infrastructure;
• and the resilience of critical national infrastructure to energy disruption.

Sue Ferns, Prospect Senior Deputy General Secretary, said:

“It is important that the causes of this outage are fully and properly understood through this investigation, and lessons learned.

“Our members working in the sector want to see a resilient network, with the proper investment in equipment and people needed to deliver that. Prospect will be contributing a submission to the final report based on the experience and expertise of those members.

“This once again underlines the complexity and importance of the work they do to keep our infrastructure running.”

NESO’s interim report is available here.