A decade ago, both Ministers and Heathrow chiefs were alerted to a significant vulnerability at the airport, specifically concerning its primary electricity supply, as disclosed by The Mail on Sunday.
A report by Jacobs, a major consultancy, highlighted in November 2014 how electricity outages could completely shut Europe’s busiest airport.
A report highlighted that even a short-term disruption in electricity provision could lead to prolonged consequences due to the time required for systems to regain normal functioning, as stated on a Government website.
This disclosure coincides with recent events where Heathrow received harsh criticism, being labeled a ‘laughing stock’ and its leadership criticized for their lack of urgency following a fire at a sole electricity substation that resulted in the airport’s closure for nearly a full day.
The blaze at the North Hyde substation in Hayes on Thursday night resulted in unprecedented scenes, with nearly 1,400 flights cancelled or delayed.
Some 120 transatlantic services were forced to turn round mid-journey and tens of thousands of passengers were stranded across the globe.
Despite the airport declaring yesterday that it was ‘open and fully operational’, the disruption is expected to last until the middle of this week because planes and crew are now out of position around the world.
Last night, Heathrow’s chairman Lord Paul Deighton said an internal review into the power outage will be chaired by former Labour Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly. He said it will focus on the airport’s crisis management plans.
Lord Toby Harris, chairman of the National Preparedness Commission, which promotes policies designed to better prepare the UK for crises, said the closure was an ‘enormous failure’.
‘It sounds to me like Heathrow airport was simply not as prepared as it should have been,’ he said, adding that a statement from Heathrow saying back-up systems at the airport ‘worked the way they should’ was ‘rather complacent’.
Jason Bona, owner of supply chain company PS Forwarding, said it was expecting to receive cargo on 15 UK-bound flights – all of which were cancelled or diverted following the fire.
‘I had friends in India phoning me at 5am asking me what’s going on,’ he said. ‘I have a WhatsApp group full of international freight forwarders with memes and such – we are a laughing stock.’
Yesterday Energy Secretary Ed Miliband ordered the National Energy System Operator to ‘urgently investigate’ the power outage.
He has also told the watchdog to take a broader view of whether the electricity grid is vulnerable to more disasters.
‘We are determined to properly understand what happened and what lessons need to be learned,’ he said.
‘The Government is determined to do everything it can to prevent a repeat of what happened at Heathrow.’
The probe is likely to focus on why Heathrow relies on such limited, and ageing, electricity infrastructure.
Its ability to operate is dependent on just three electricity substations. If one completely fails, the power it provides cannot be replaced without lengthy delays.
It was a vulnerability highlighted by Jacobs in a report commissioned as part of a proposal to extend Heathrow’s northern runway in 2014.
The report said: ‘Beyond the management of supply and grid services, which lie outside the airport’s control, the responsibility for managing electricity supply risk lies with the airport and businesses operating from the airport.
‘While some services can be temporarily supported with generator or battery back-ups, the key weakness is the main transmission line connections to the airport.’
The report said the airport ‘appears to have adequate provision of utility infrastructure’ but added: ‘Outages could cause disruption to passenger, baggage and aircraft handling functions and could require closure of areas of affected terminals or potentially the entire airport.’
Heathrow’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye yesterday said he was proud of the airport’s response to the chaos.
He added: ‘Our systems are not designed to power the entire airport… I was not shocked at the fact we do not have back-up power for every single system in the airport. That would require a separate power plant of a big size to be on standby all the time.’
Mr Woldbye insisted: ‘The same would happen in other airports.’
But other major hubs have ploughed millions into boosting power supplies. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airport in the US, the world’s busiest, spent $100million to build 20 back-up generators after it lost power in 2017.
Also 13,000 solar panels are being installed on the roof at John F Kennedy airport in New York as part of a ‘micro-grid’ that will provide electricity for half of daily operations at its new Terminal One.
Willie Walsh, former boss of British Airways who now heads aviation trade body IATA, said the meltdown on Friday was ‘yet another case of Heathrow letting down travellers and airlines’.
He asked: ‘How is it that critical infrastructure of national and global importance is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative?’
British Airways said yesterday that it expected to run 85 per cent of its flights.
National Grid said it was ‘making changes to ‘improve the resilience levels of our network’.
Experts warned that passengers will receive refunds but compensation will not be paid .
Passenger rights regulations state that if a flight is cancelled for any reason, the airline must offer a full refund or a flight on the next available alternative, even if it is with a rival airline.
But disruption caused by a fire, bad weather or other ‘extraordinary circumstances’ does not entitle passengers to compensation.
Liz Steele said it was ‘devastating’ to miss her youngest son Paddy’s graduation at Stirling university on Friday. She said: ‘I’ve been to every other graduation my kids have had and I just always thought I would be there.’
