Switch off the editor’s digest free of charge
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The fire, which led to the end of the Heathrow Airport for 24 hours in March, was caused by an “catastrophic failure” of equipment in an electric substation.
The Flame on the Nordhyde conversation In Hayes, West London, the moisture in the “socket” material began, through which the current electricity flows out in and from the transformer-which leads to an electrical error, the State National Energy System operator (NESO) said on Wednesday.
The Blaze destroyed the substation and triggered power outages for around 70,000 customers in the region, including Heathrow AirportEurope’s most busy airport.
The closure led to the cancellation of more than 1,300 flights and widespread Questions about resistance the critical national infrastructure.
The NESO report showed that a high moisture measurement in the socket was demonstrated in oil samples in 2018, “but did not mitigate appropriate measures for the severity”.
The finding raises questions for National Grid, the FTSE 100 company that has and operates the substation together with the rest of the electricity transmission network in England and Wales.
The British energy regulator said this morning that it opened a law enforcement examination by the National Grid Electricity Transfer and that the cause of the fire was “avoidable”.
“In the NESO final report it was found that the basic cause of the fire was an avoidable, technical error,” said Ofgem in an explanation.
National Grid’s transmission department started an “end-to-end check of the oil sampling process to ensure that it is robust,” added Neso.
“In addition, carry out a review and insurance of all recorded oil samples to ensure that all suitable measures have been taken if necessary.”
