Questions raised over power resilience of Heathrow airport after electrical substation fire.

A fire at the National Grid North Hyde substation has led to a complete loss of power at Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest aviation hub, causing significant disruption for over 200,000 passengers. The incident, which occurred on the busiest day of theweek for air travel, has forced Heathrow into a shutdown, sparking flight disruption and wider concerns about infrastructure resilience. 

Using publicly available data it can be seen that there are two National Grid substations close to the airport, one at North Hyde, north of the airport and one at Laleham, south of the airport. These will then step down into the local distribution network through bulk supply points and finally distribution substations. It appears that the local distribution network only connects Heathrow to North Hyde Grid Supply Point. What remains unclear is why power cannot be reconnected quickly through Laleham.

In addition to the National Grid connection, Heathrow operates a biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plant. However, it appears this facility has not been able to provide full back up capacity today.

“This potential lack of resilience at a critical national and international infrastructure site is worrying,” said Phil Hewitt, Director at Montel Analytics. “While fires at Grid Supply Points are rare, they do occur, and this incident highlights the urgent need to review and potentially bolster Heathrow’s security of electricity supply.

“An airport as large and as important as Heathrow should not be vulnerable to a single point of failure. That’s why it’s important to know why power could not be swiftly restored via another nearby substation for example the Laleham substation.

“Steps should be taken to explore connectivity options between Heathrow and alternative substations linked to different grid supply points. Additionally, increasing on-site backup generation capacity could be considered to ensure continued operations in the event of a national power outage. “Heathrow’s ambitions to expand with a third runway further emphasize the need for a robust and reliable power supply.”