A fire at a nearby electrical substation triggered a massive power cut, forcing the closure of most of Heathrow Airport’s operations. Consequently, flights were canceled and people were stuck traveling. The major incident, still unfolding, was prompted when the utility’s back-up transformer failed. Emergency back-up power supplies came online, including diesel generators and batteries. In doing so, they consistently kept essential safety operations up and running too, like landing gear and runway lighting. The federal government has dispatched an investigation team to determine what led to the outage. First results should come in six weeks.
This was particularly galling given the series of unfortunate events that played out when the electrical substation fire resulted in the power loss at Heathrow. While the airport is provided with emergency back-up systems, these systems can only supply enough power to maintain critical safety operations. This left other areas of the airport blanketed in darkness briefly, forcing numerous flight cancellations and delays. One of these, a different biomass power generator, was able to keep heat and electricity flowing to Terminal Two throughout the explosion.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said that Heathrow’s well-designed resilience plans had worked. She admitted these plans weren’t really advanced to guard the whole energy supply for the airport. Thomas Woldbye, the airport’s chief executive, admitted that a back-up transformer malfunctioned during the power outage. This required them to change to not one but two different replacement power supplies, which added additional minutes to the equation.
"Given Heathrow's size and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge," said a Heathrow spokesperson.
Heathrow faced many hurdles. As John Pettigrew, the chief executive of National Grid, noted at the time, two other substations remained up and running, able to continue supplying the airport.
"Each substation individually can provide enough power to Heathrow," Pettigrew stated.
Willie Walsh, the ex chief of British Airways laid into the airport’s handling of the incident. He called it a “laughable, clear planning failure.” He made a strong case for stronger contingency planning and preparedness to avoid this type of disruption in the future – at that scale.
"there are questions" for bosses of the UK's largest airport to answer, remarked Sir Keir Starmer.
An internal after-action review will look at the airport’s crisis management plans and handling of the planned power cut. Former transport secretary Ruth Kelly will preside over this vital review. The purpose of this review is to realize what could have been done better and make sure we are more prepared the next time around.
In his statement on the incident, the Transport Secretary underlined the crucial importance of confidence in Heathrow’s management.
"The individuals who need to ask themselves whether they have full confidence in Heathrow management are the Heathrow board," she commented.