Heathrow had enough power to operate despite blaze, National Grid boss says

Heathrow Airport could have kept operating despite the substation blaze that disrupted its electricity supply on Thursday, the head of the National Grid has said.

Around 200,000 travellers were stranded worldwide when Europe’s busiest airport abruptly shut down.

Passengers who were already in the air, meanwhile, faced being diverted to airports in France, Ireland and even the US.

But National Grid chief executive John Pettigrew said Heathrow is supplied by two other substations alongside the one that burst into flames.

He told the Financial Times: ‘There was no lack of capacity from the substations. Each substation individually can provide enough power to Heathrow.’

Pettigrew added it was a ‘question for Heathrow’ why it decided to completely shut down operations for almost 24 hours.

The airport said while it is capable of operating with the power from the remaining two substations, its internal networks would need to be ‘reconfigured’ to make the switch.

Aviation expert Bernard Lavelle compared the scale of the problem to the 2010 Iceland volcano ash cloud.

He told Metro previously: ‘Heathrow will have backup generators, but you can’t backup the whole airport.

‘It’s a pretty substantial fire. There were thousands of homes without electricity as well.

‘Heathrow will no doubt review all of this, but this is a huge substation which has impacted Heathrow and houses.

‘I’m not sure if it’s overly fair to blame Heathrow for its closure due to something that is beyond its control.’

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said yesterday an urgent investigation had been launched into the incident, which disrupted air travel around the world.

He said the British government is ‘determined to properly understand what happened and what lessons need to be learned’.

The inquiry will be carried out by carried out by NESO, the UK’s independent National Energy System Operator.

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