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The UK government has launched an urgent inquiry into the March 21 closure of London Heathrow airport following a fire in a nearby electricity supply facility.
The UK’s only major hub airport was closed for 18 hr. when the blaze knocked out part of the airport’s power supply. Flights resumed later on March 21, but the knock-on effects of aircraft and crews being out of position lingered through the weekend and beyond.
Some 1,350 flights were canceled and almost 300,000 passengers had their travel plans disrupted because of the fire.
The government’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has commissioned the UK’s National Energy System Operator (NESO), which is responsible for the planning and operation of the country’s electricity grid, to undertake the investigation. NESO’s investigation will help build a picture of the circumstances surrounding the incident and, more broadly, the UK’s energy resilience, with the aim of preventing a similar incident happening in the future.
A separate “resilience review” led by the government’s Cabinet Office is ongoing and due to conclude within the next two months.
“The loss of power to the Heathrow area has caused major disruption to thousands of people and many businesses. We are determined to properly understand what happened and what lessons need to be learned,” Miliband said.
“That is why working with [energy regulator] Ofgem, I have today commissioned the National Energy System Operator to carry out an investigation into this specific incident and to understand any wider lessons to be learned on energy resilience for critical national infrastructure, both now and in the future.
“The government is determined to do everything it can to prevent a repeat of what happened at Heathrow.”
Ofgem “will work with the government and others to ensure NESO’s review goes as far as possible to ensuring steps are put in place to avoid any repeat of an incident of this scale in the future,” the regulator’s director-general for infrastructure, Akshay Kaul, said.
“To the extent the review finds any breaches of standards or license obligations, we will not hesitate to take action.”
NESO said that further details of the scope of the investigation will be published in the coming days. The organization expects to report to Miliband and Ofgem with its initial findings within six weeks.
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