Preventable technical failures caused by the Heathrow Airport fire have been well-known for years: Report – Country
An electrical substation fire closed Heathrow Airport and cancelled more than 1,300 flights, a report on Wednesday found, causing a preventable technical failure discovered about seven years ago.
Europe's busiest air centers closed for about 18 hours in March after a fire knocked down one of three electrical substations with power. The journey of more than 270,000 passengers was interrupted.
Counter-terrorism police initially led an investigation into the fire, with European authorities opposing Russian-backed vandalism.
Although authorities quickly ruled out intentional destruction or damage, the huge impact of the fire has attracted attention to the resilience of the UK energy system for accidents, natural disasters or attacks.
The government ordered an investigation of “any broader lesson on energy resilience in key national infrastructure”.
A report by the National Energy Systems operator said “elevated moisture readings” were found in oil samples at substations in western London in July 2018, but no action was taken to replace the electrical insulator known as the bushing.
Get the daily national news
Get news, politics, economics and current events titles delivered to your inbox every day.
It said the March 20 fire was caused by a “catastrophic failure” in one of the transformers, “probably due to the moisture that causes a short circuit in the bushing.”
The report also said Heathrow underestimated the possibility of losing one of its three power supplies, and as a result, “its internal electrical distribution network was not designed or configured to leverage multiple supply points to provide rapid recovery after such losses.”
Energy Minister Ed Miliband said the findings were “very worrying”. He said OFGEM, the energy industry regulator, has conducted an investigation into whether it violated the state grid power transmission, the operator of the substation, violated its licensing conditions.
National Grid said the UK has “one of the most reliable networks in the world, and events of this nature are rare. National Grid has a comprehensive asset inspection and maintenance program and we have taken further action since the fire.”
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
