Hillingdon (Parliament Politics Magazine) – West London Businesses warned National Grid, NESO, and Ofgem of Heathrow Airport, Hillingdon, electricity capacity crisis, citing oversubscribed energy supply.
West London business associations have stated that last week’s Heathrow Airport power outage was “no surprise.”
It comes after Heathrow Airport’s power supply was cut off due to a substation fire in Hayes, west London, on Friday, forcing the airport to close.
The fire was described as a “unique event” by John Pettigrew of National Grid to the Financial Times, although two other substations were still in functioning and could supply electricity to the airport.
The CEO of Heathrow previously stated that the shutdown was caused by the time it took to move from the damaged substation to the other two, not a shortage of power.
West London Business CEO Andrew Dakers, meanwhile, stated that he believed the incident was a reflection of a “enormously frustrating” continuous problem with the area’s power supplies, which the company had been keeping an eye on.
He claimed that National Grid enhancements needed to be expedited and demanded ministerial oversight.
West London is one of the best locations in the world to invest and we’ve got people that are standing by wanting to build new homes, wanting to build new industrial sheds, Heathrow wanting to expand the airport – but none of that’s really possible without a decent power supply,
Mr Dakers explained.
While he said it was important to wait for the outcome of investigations into the cause of the substation fire, Mr Dakers added
“the fragility of the network was indeed no surprise”.
We have seen the wider west London networks under stress; we occasionally get businesses experiencing cables melting in the ground,” said Mr Dakers.
We need a power supply with headroom.
In three of our boroughs – Hillingdon which is home to Heathrow, Ealing and Hounslow – there’s no headroom left.”
The government, the London incident Brigade, and Heathrow Airport are all conducting investigations into the incident and the ensuing power outage.
West London’s “grid capacity and capability within the network” was made clear by the recent fire, according to Councillor Shantanu Rajawat, the Labour and Co-operative leader of nearby Hounslow Council.
He said while the fire was shocking and disturbing, he believed it was “symptomatic of a lack of investment in infrastructure from the previous government”.
“What they left the new government was quite frankly woeful,”
he said.
He noted that in order to free up more capacity, the council had been collaborating with vendors and the government.
“The fact of the matter is there are developers in west London looking to develop sites to bring much needed housing into the area; there is a requirement for data centres and all that that brings, and of course we have to be mindful of the fact that Heathrow is on our doorstep as well.
There is a lot of infrastructure in the area that is requiring electricity capacity… this is a very small example of what that could look like.”
According to Mr. Rajawat, the issue was so severe that some developers were forced to purchase electricity “from many, many miles away and dig trenches and fit wiring” because they were unable to connect to local supplies.
It follows the danger of delays in 2022 caused by a lack of power capacity in certain west London home complexes.
After the electricity supplier resolved the problem, they were finally allowed to proceed.
A NESO spokesperson said:
“NESO welcomes the government’s commission to review the power outage incident impacting Heathrow and surrounding areas.
We will now work with all relevant stakeholders to understand the lessons that can be learned to improve the future resilience of Great Britain’s energy system.”
National Grid, Ofgem and the Conservatives have been contacted for a response.
What was the impact of this power outage at Heathrow airport in Hillingdon?
The boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow, and Hillingdon are the main areas impacted. The fast expansion of data centers along the M4 corridor, which use as much electricity as small towns, makes things worse.
The limitations have caused delays in commercial and residential construction. Developers must endure lengthy wait times for power connections; some have been informed that they may not be able to get a grid connection until 2035.
These persistent capacity problems were brought to light by a recent substation fire that caused a power outage at Heathrow Airport.
The incident highlighted the necessity of dependable electrical infrastructure to support significant undertakings like Heathrow’s expansion ambitions, even if it was not directly caused by a lack of supplies.