Why burns a burning sub -on Heathrow for one day

Heathrow is undergoing the increasing scrutiny due to his decision to close for approximately 24 hours after a fire at a nearby electrical sub -station, although it was still able to receive energy from other parts of the network.

The higher management of the most crowded European airport in Europe made the closing decision on Friday, as they clashed to restore full energy to a complex that uses the same amount of electricity as a small city.

But John Petrigu, CEO of the National Network, which runs the British Transport Network, told the Financial Times that two other pickers serve Heathrow They were working throughout the accident, which means that the force was always available, even if the airport was not able to benefit from it quickly.

With concerns grow on the flexibility of the United Kingdom Critical infrastructure“There are questions” for CEOs at Hub Airport to answer the turmoil, “said Prime Minister Sir Kerr Starmer on Monday.

Why was there not enough backup energy to operate the airport?

Heathrow has enough diesel generators to operate critical operations, including the control tower and runway lights, and the passengers were able to leave the airport safely late Thursday night after reporting the power outage for the first time. But her births lack the ability to operate the entire airport.

Simon Gallagher, the UK network, the UK networks, a consultant with energy networks, said a few other airports have better backup supplies than Heathrow.

But he said that other industries are “much more flexible”, adding: “The airports industry as a whole have this issue with flexibility … other industries with large communications that guarantee never overcome them.”

Heathrow launched an internal review of the power outage and the closure of the subsequent airport, led by a member of the Board of Directors and former Minister of Transport Roth Kelly.

The National Energy System operator leads a separate government investigation in the power outage and its impact on Heathrow and the surrounding area.

How do you compare Heathrow’s flexibility?

The nearby data center, which is managed by the ARK data centers, which is equipped with 12 emergency generators, was also affected by the fire stations on Friday, but it says that it managed to avoid turmoil by operating the backup supplies.

“I don’t think the people who buy services off their name will buy them without this flexibility,” said Hoo Owen, CEO of Ark.

On Tuesday, Energy Minister Michael Shanks established more pressure on Heathrow, indicating a “great repetition” in the energy infrastructure surrounding the airport.

He told MPS: “The local network operator and the national network were able to find a solution to link all families within hours.” “We need to consider the elasticity of the external network connected to the Heathrow, but the private network within the Heathrow is what they need to review.”

US government 2023 a report A large axis airport was found that 10 diesel fuel generators and adequate fuel on the site were found to operate the entire airport for three weeks. Analysts said that the airport was seen as strange.

Olivier Yankovic, Director General of the International Commercial Group Airports Council, said that flexibility should “have achieved the right balance between risks and costs.” “Ensuring the minimum disorders and maintaining continuity as much as possible is simply not always possible – especially when facing rare and extremist events.”

Why did it take a long time to restart if the energy is available?

While the fire took out a sub -station of North Hyde outside the operation, two others remained able to provide energy to the airport. But in order to reach energy from the remaining improved, Heathrow said he had to “reinstine” its internal electrical networks.

In practice, this meant that the airport had to send the technicians to its power distribution points, as they changed the circuit breakers physically to separate the Heathrow from North Hyde and re -connect it to other stations.

The airport also had to close hundreds of systems and test it systematically before it could resume operations.

“Given the size of Heathrow and the complexity of operation, the restarts safely after disabling this size was a major challenge,” said Heathrow.

It is not clear how long it took every step of the operation, and some experts said they were surprised by the time it took to return the airport to normal operation.

Heathrow announced at 4.30 in the morning on Friday that it would be closed until midnight, and at 12:30 pm, it started restarting its systems. By 4 pm, the airport was “100 percent confident that all systems are working safely,” said Minister of Transport Heidi Alexander. The first trips were restarted at about 7 pm.

“In some respects, this appears to be () a failure in the process,” said David Walom, Professor of Information at Oxford University. “It seems that Heathrow has never considered this failure.”

Should Heathrow be more prepared?

“All emergency planning requires” weight of economics. ”

“No technical system will be 100 percent of failure,” he said. “I didn’t feel the feeling that this was a reckless design – the system was designed to be reliable, and a very unlikely situation began.”

However, the Energy Industry Executive officials said that Heathrow should have been better ready due to his position as the most busy airport in Europe. One of the executives said that the ability to switch energy quickly “should be a lower standard.”

“Until a brief interruption of electricity supplies can have a long -term effect,” said 2014 report from Consultance Jacobs, which was prepared as part of the predecessor of expansion in the former Heathrow.

But she concluded that “Heathrow is equipped with generation on the site and it seems that she has a flexible electricity supply that corresponds to regulations and standards.”

Heathrow has spent a total of 7.4 billion pounds in capital expenditures on the airport since 2014, including new security lights. But at a time when the decline fees rise, the airlines criticized their owners to spend this money ineffective, leaving the airport with an infrastructure for aging.

Additional reports by Clara Murray in London. Ian Pot illustrations