National Grid’s chief has dismissed claims that Heathrow was left without power after Friday’s substation fire, insisting the airport had enough electricity from backup sources.
John Pettigrew told the Financial Times the fire, which knocked out a substation in Hayes, was a “unique event,” but stressed that two other substations remained operational and capable of keeping Heathrow running.
Heathrow’s CEO admitted the issue wasn’t a total power failure but the time it took to switch supply from the damaged substation to the others.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander dodged questions on whether she had confidence in Heathrow’s management, saying it was for the airport’s board to decide.
The outage shut down the UK’s busiest airport for 18 hours, grounding thousands of flights and disrupting millions of pounds worth of cargo. Passengers were stranded worldwide as chaos unfolded.
The blaze started in a transformer just after midnight, cutting off Heathrow’s main power supply. While the airport has diesel generators and battery backups to keep crucial safety systems running—such as runway lights and landing equipment—it still relies heavily on National Grid for its main operations.
A biomass generator also supplies some power to Terminal Two, but it wasn’t enough to keep the airport running.
Pettigrew, said he couldn’t recall a transformer failure like this before.
“Losing a substation is a unique event but there were two others available. That is a level of resilience,” he told the FT.
“There was no lack of capacity from the substations. Each substation individually can provide enough power to Heathrow.”
With flights back on schedule, Heathrow bosses are now facing tough questions about why it took so long to restore operations—despite having the power supply they needed.
