Five takeaways from report into fire that shut Heathrow down
A report on fire in an electric transformer center caused chaos for more than 200,000 passengers, which caused Heathrow Airport to close for about one day.
The National Energy System Operator (Neso) determined the possible cause of the fire and said the national network, which operates the transformer center, was warned about a mistake seven years ago.
Here are five basic findings from the report.
1. Fire caused by moisture
Neso Report answered one of the key questions – what caused the fire?
The fire -caught device was a “supergrid transformer” that reduced it to a lower voltage for the next stage of its way to the high -voltage electric field and the road to Heathrow airport and the environment houses.
Inspectors, the possible cause of the high-voltage “horoscope” -Is insulating around the insulating around the insulation, he said.
This caused the short circuit and electrical sparks such as “arc” – Bujides – which resulted in the “disaster malfunction”.
This caused the oil that caused the transformer to cool to burn fire, and the two transformers took offline and dropped the power to Heathrow.
2. National Grid knew the problem seven years before the fire
The report said that moisture symptoms were detected in North Hyde in July 2018.
National Grid’s guidance said that these are a “close error” that should be changed.
However, the problem was not corrected at that time.
In 2022, the basic maintenance on the transformer was postponed.
More than one attempt was made to plan care, but none of them continued.
3. Heathrow knew that one of the three grid connections would close the airport
Heathrow uses electricity as much as a small city and has three connections to the national network.
However, if one fell, lock systems are connected to other supply sources, he would have to close the airport for 10 to 12 hours.
He didn’t think it was a possible scenario, so it wasn’t worth spending to fix the money – that Heathrow said he would cost a billion pounds before.
Neso said that having three connections with the grill means “opportunities” to increase the supply flexibility of Heathrow.
4. He didn’t know how important the national grill transformer center was
National grill and energy supplier SSAN knew that electricity from North Hyde went to Heathrow Airport.
However, they did not know that if this supply was cut, Heathrow should be closed.
Maybe if it were, they would have adopted a different approach for care.
Energy suppliers do not know whether their customers are counted as “critical national infrastructure (CNI)” – sectors such as transportation, defense, government or communication.
The report calls for better communication between CNI operators and energy suppliers to ensure that the materials are not interrupted.
5. Heathrow is not happy
Heathrow has entered a lot of criticism after a fire – including the revelation that Thomas Woldbye was sleeping in bed when it was decided to close the airport.
Neso said his report was not written for “sharing accusation”, but Heathrow is now considering legal action against the national network.
According to this view, the report announced that “open and repeated failures” that could prevent the fire and should do.
He said he expects the national network to “take responsibility for these failures”.
National Grid, a comprehensive maintenance program and will cooperate with the OGEM investigation, he said.
