National Grid confirms Heathrow had energy entry throughout shutdown | EUROtoday

The chief govt of the National Grid has confirmed energy was obtainable to maintain Heathrow open all through Friday’s shutdown.

In an interview with the Financial Times, John Pettigrew mentioned the fireplace that knocked out a substation was a “unique event”, however that two different substations remained operational and able to powering the airport in west London.

Heathrow chief govt Thomas Woldbye had mentioned on Friday that the shutdown was not brought on by an absence of energy, however was because of the time it took to change from the broken substation to the opposite two.

The airport is below stress from airways to elucidate why flights have been suspended for 18 hours after the fireplace within the early hours of Friday morning.

The hearth began in a transformer throughout the electrical substation in Hayes, north of Heathrow, round midnight.

The airport has emergency back-up energy provides, which use diesel turbines and batteries, however these solely preserve essential security methods operating, comparable to touchdown gear and runway lights.

A separate biomass energy generator additionally gives warmth and electrical energy to Terminal Two.

However, the National Grid is the principle supply of energy for Heathrow.

Mr Pettigrew informed the Financial Times he could not keep in mind a transformer failing to such an extent in his 30-year profession within the business.

“Losing a substation is a unique event but there were two others available. That is a level of resilience.”

A Heathrow spokeswoman mentioned that Mr Pettigrew’s feedback “confirms that this was an unprecedented incident and that it would not have been possible for Heathrow to operate uninterrupted.

“Hundreds of essential methods throughout the airport have been required to be safely powered down after which safely and systematically rebooted,” she said.

“Given Heathrow’s dimension and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a major problem.”

On Friday, Heathrow managers decided to close the airport on safety grounds while they switched to the alternative National Grid supplies.

Mr Woldbye told the BBC the delay in reopening was due to the need to “reallocate” the power supply – “closing down and restarting methods which takes a very long time”.

He mentioned there have been a “variety of methods we now have to close down after which carry them again up and guarantee they’re secure”.

“It’s fuelling methods, its bridges, it is escalators, all of those methods need to be introduced again up, examined to make sure they’re secure.”

He added that there were risks “of sure sizes we can’t guard ourselves towards 100% and that is certainly one of them”.

However the duration of the shutdown has infuriated airlines.

Willie Walsh, the former British Airways boss and head of the airline organisation IATA said it was a “clear planning failure by the airport” and the systems and procedures for handling power failures are now under the spotlight.

The government’s ordered a six-week investigation into the shutdown, led by the National Energy System Operator.

Mr Woldbye, who attracted criticism for claiming the airport had “come again fairly quick”, said he was “completely happy” to answer to the prime minister.

Simon Gallagher, managing director of UK Network Services, a consultancy specialising in power grids, said every airport in the UK had the same “vulnerability” to National Grid faults.

He said that a data centre near Heathrow entirely backs up its power sourcing, and that it was a “truthful query to ask” why the airport had not been protected in the same way.

“It’s a tough argument to make to say that information centres are extra necessary than Heathrow,” Mr Gallagher informed BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.