The Chief Executive of the National Grid has insisted that the electricity transmission network remained capable of feeding enough energy for Heathrow throughout the airport closure last week, as the aerial lines for the decision to close for nearly 24 hours increased.
In his first comments since the fire on Thursday night, John Pettigrew told Financial Times that while an “unprecedented” flame overturned the Hyde North substation, two others serving Heathrow were working throughout the incident.
“There was no lack of capacity from substations,” he said. “Nestationdo Substation individually can provide enough power for heathrow.”
Heathrow closed for almost everyone on Friday after the substation fire, causing disruption that is expected to cost tens of millions of pounds. More than 1,300 flights were canceled, touching hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The airport said that while it is able to conduct full energy operations from only two substations, it had to “reconfigure” its internal electric networks to certainly make the switch.
Heathrow Chief of Heathrow Thomas Woldbye said over the weekend that the airport also had to certainly restart thousands of its systems – from luggage belts to air bridges.
He seemed to shift any fault to the power industry, as he told the BBC that Heathrow would appreciate if it should “another level of sustainability if we cannot believe that the network around us is working properly”.
But Pettigrew said: “Two substations were always available to distribution network companies and heathrow to get power.” He added that it was a “question for heathrow” why he took the action he did.
“Losing a substation is a unique event – but there were two others available,” he said. “So this is a level of resistance.”
Late on Sunday, a Heathrow spokesman said: “As the chief executive of the National Network noted, John Pettigrew, he has never seen a transformer failure like this in his 30 years in the industry. His opinion confirms that this was an unprecedented incident and that it would not be possible for Heathrrow to function without interruption.”
National Grid owned and operates Britain’s high voltage transmission network, including substations around Heathrow, where electricity feeds on lower voltage distribution networks and then home and business. Ssen owns the distribution network in the area.
As they began to recover their operations over the weekend, the airlines began to question the length of the closure, and if some terminals could have been reopened faster.
A senior executive said the airlines had been “pushing and pushing” heathrow to reopen.
“It is not clear why Heathrow made the decision so early to close the airport all day. It is clear that flights to Terminal 5 could have been activated early on Friday afternoon,” they said.
Another senior executive said “many” airlines had been waiting for the airport to reopen faster, though they admitted that his management had faced “difficult” decisions.
One third agreed that there were questions if all terminals should have been closed for so long.
On Sunday evening, Heathrow’s spokesman said: “In accordance with our airline partners, our target was to reopen as soon as it is safe and practically possible after the fire … During the weekend, we were able to focus on the operation of a full schedule of over 2,500 flights.”
Woldbye said heathrow reopened as soon as possible, and she and the airport had faced an “big” and “unprecedented” event.
Ministers have ordered an investigation into the incident, and on Sunday Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the rift underlined the need for new airport capacity in London, including a third track in Heathrow.
The closure is expected to cost the airline industry about 60 million to 70 million, according to Andrew Light, a consultant and former executive at the British Airways IAG owner.
Airlines do not have to pay direct compensation to customers, but they have to cover hotel bills and other decay costs. Heathrow has said it is not responsible for the costs of the airline.
Nigel Wicking, Heathrow AOC chief executive, who represents airport airlines, said: “We already pay enough for heathrow services, we also cannot pay where there is a lack of sustainability and failure of this nature, whether it is Heathrow or their suppliers.”
Pettigrew said the fire in the North Hyde substation – for which firefighters said they set 25,000 liters of cooling oil on fire – was so wild that it damaged all three transformers in the site, including one that is there for backups and away from the other two.
He added that the cause of the fire was not yet known as it is still too hot for full forensic work, with third parties involving it was not yet excluded. Police against terrorism are investigating, but said there are no signs of wrong games.
“I don’t remember a transformer who fails like this in my 30+ years in the industry,” Pettigrew said.
Asked why the site, built in the 1960s, was created in a way that it was possible for all three transformers to crash from a fire, he said: “You need to build substations in the available space, and no doubt you do everything you can to mitigate the risks.
“But this is something I clearly think an investigation will look a little further.”
Fire in the substation comes at a time of increased concern about the risk of damage to the critical national infrastructure of the United Kingdom given the Russian war against Ukraine.
FT reported on Friday that the infrastructure owners were prompted in November to be reliable vigilant threats coming from Russia.
Asked how concerned he was about the threat from Russia, Pettigrew said: “We always focus on the safety of our assets. And I won’t go to the details of this.”
There is also an elevated control over the electricity networks, in general, given the shift from fossil fuels, which includes the largest support on the equipment directed in electricity from the wind and solar farms.
“Only this year, we are investing £ 10 billion in the network, Pettigrew added.” And over the next five years in the transmission system we have just presented a 35bn £ plan.
“So I’m absolutely confident and confident that we are investing in the network for security resistance.”
