National Grid’s chief executive has argued that the heat transfer network could be fully empowered during airport closures last week as airlines anger over the decision to close nearly 24 hours a day.
In his first comment since the fire on Thursday night, John Pettigrew told the Financial Times that a “unprecedented” flame knocked out the Northhide substation, but two other people serving Heathrow were working throughout the incident.
“There was no shortage of capacity from the substation,” he said. “Individual dispersion can provide enough power to Heathrow.”
Heathrow was closed for almost all Friday following a fire at the substation, causing disruptions that airlines could expect to cost tens of millions of pounds. More than 1,300 flights have been cancelled, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers.
According to the airport, full operations can be performed with power from two substations, but it said that the internal electrical network must be “reconfigured” to create the switch safely.
Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye said over the weekend that the airport must safely restart thousands of systems, from baggage belts to air bridges.
He appeared to transfer some responsibility to the power industry as he told the BBC that he would evaluate whether “a different level of resilience is needed if the grid around us is not reliable and functioning in the way it is necessary.”
However, Pettigrew said: “Two substations were always available for distribution network companies and Heathrow to take power,” he added that it was a “Heathrow question” as to why it acted.
“Losing a substation is a unique event, but we had two other people available,” he said. “That’s the level of resilience.”
Late Sunday, a Heathrow spokesman said: “As pointed out by John Pettigrew, CEO of the National Grid, he said he has never seen such a transformer breakdown in 30 years in the industry.
National Grid owns and operates a UK high voltage transmission network, including substations around Heathrow. There, electricity is supplied to low-voltage distribution networks, then to homes and businesses. SSEN owns the distribution network for the region.
As they began to recover operations over the weekend, the airline began to question the length of the shutdown and whether some terminals could reopen sooner.
A senior executive said the airline had reopened because it was “pushing and pushing” Heathrow.
“It’s not clear why Heathrow made an early decision to close the airport all day. It’s clear that flights to Terminal 5 were effective early Friday afternoon,” they said.
Another senior executive said “many” airlines were hoping the airport would reopen more quickly, but they acknowledged that their management faced a “difficult” decision.
The third agreed that there was a question about whether all the devices should have been closed for a long time.
On Sunday night, a Heathrow spokesman said: “Along with our airline partners, our aim was to resume as safely and indeed as soon as possible after a fire.
Woldbye said Heathrow resumed as quickly as possible, and the airport faced a “major” and “unprecedented” event.
The minister ordered an investigation into the incident, saying on Sunday Prime Minister Rachel Reeves highlighted the need for London’s new airport capacity, including the third runway at Heathrow.
The shutdown is expected to cost the aviation industry around £60-£70m, according to Andrew Light, a consultant and former senior executive at British Airways owner IAG.
Airlines do not need to pay customers directly, but they need to cover hotel bills and other disruptive expenses. Heathrow says it is not liable for airline costs.
Nigel Wicking, CEO of Heathrow AOC, which represents airlines using the airport, said:
Pettigrew said the fire at the Northhide substation (which firefighters said they burned 25,000 liters of cooling oil) was so violent that it damaged all three transformers on the site, including those for backup and those far from the other two.
He added that the cause of the fire is still unknown as it is still too hot for a full forensic job and third party involvement has not yet been ruled out. Counterterrorism police are investigating it but say there are no signs of foul play.
“I don’t remember this kind of trance failure in over 30 years in the industry,” Pettigrew said.
When asked why the site, built in the 1960s, was designed so that all three transformers could be knocked out by one fire, he said, “We need to build a substation in available space and clearly do everything we can to mitigate the risks.
“But that’s obviously, I think the investigation will look a little more closely.”
Fires at the substation come when concerns grow about the risk of damaging Britain’s important national infrastructure, given the Russian war with Ukraine.
The FT reported on Friday that infrastructure owners were urged to be extremely vigilant in response to a reliable threat from Russia in November.
Pettigrew was asked how concerned he was about the threat from Russia.
Additionally, there is generally increasing scrutiny of power networks taking into account the transition from fossil fuels. This includes wind power and electricity from solar farms rely heavily on the equipment they drive.
“This year alone, we’ve invested £10 billion in our network and added Pettigrew,” and submitted a plan for £35 billion in transmission systems over the next five years.
“So I’m absolutely sure and I’m sure we’re investing in our network for safety and resilience.”
