Heathrow Airport is shut until Friday night

[Ozgirl76]

And my husband is due to fly home to Australia on Friday evening. I predict chaos.
Airport is saying that people should not travel to Heathrow and should contact their airlines.

I agree if this is Russia then it could be the start of a Russia/NATO full scale war. I've never known Heathrow airport to be shut down like this. Perhaps Cobra should meet today?

Ruined a really important work trip for me but hey ... the main thing is no one seems to be harmed.

@Longsummerdays25

if this does turn out to be Russia - alongside the sabotage of an oil tanker a few days before…

There is absolutely no indication it was anything other than an accident or incompetence. Most cargo crews are multi-national.
The Russian captain has been charged because he’s where the buck stops at sea. Probably fast asleep in his cabin when it happened.

Minister: 'No suggestion of foul play'
There's no suggestion that "foul play" caused the substation fire that forced the airport's closure, a minister has said.
Having earlier told Sky News the blaze was "unusual and unprecedented", net zero secretary Ed Miliband told LBC News he believed the fire was simply a "catastrophic accident".
He said: "We've got to get power restored as quickly as possible and Heathrow opened as quickly as possible.
"But the truth is it's going to take time to unwind the disruption for obvious reasons.
"There's no suggestion there is any foul play."
'Fast-moving' situation
Meanwhile, Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, has said she is receiving updates on the "fast-moving" situation...

The substation fire that forced the airport to close has been described as "really unusual" by an energy expert.
"It looks like the extent of the fire has damaged some of the equipment," Tim Green told our presenter Anna Jones, adding the airport would have multiple electrical routes as well as backup generators.
Green said the substation was "one of the large ones in the country" and at least one of its three transformers, key parts of the substation, has been "very badly damaged".
He explains the transformers take a long time to order, and it's unusual to carry a stock of those, meaning it will likely take a long time to repair the damage to the substation.

heathrow is fucking massive isn’t it, so I’d imagine some of it has power some doesn’t. I’d be surprised if the entire site is solely supplied by Hayes, given the vast area it covers.
I can think of one substation that would be nearer some of the terminals than Hayes is, for instance.

the power is probably also intermittent, the backup is down.
so ensuring a safe, secure, constant supply is probably the reason why. it’s better to entirely pull the plug and let airlines know so they can plan than give uncertainty

This is questionable and quite alarming language. A minister can not possibly know any of the facts yet, even a preliminary report would not be able to rule out foul play.
It’s more worrying not less that they seem so eager to play it down before the investigation has even started.

It will be like "Come from Away".

The other issue with back up power is whether it’s an uninterrupted supply. We have UPS at work, but with the sensitivity of computing systems you still need to do all the checks to ensure the software is running correctly, and we only have it on one floor because presumably it’s expensive and it needs testing regularly. That’s ok with what we do, but I can’t imagine it is that easy with safety critical stuff.

On some national CI they have more than one networked power supply for resilience. But as others have said there is a cost to resilience, and it’s the same for example as having snow ploughs on standby for the rare snow days at Heathrow. It’s a business and they will have assessed the risks, and the costs of mitigating them.

Hopefully they'll find a first leg flight for him from Manchester.

It's going to take days to get everything back to normal. It's not just the people that need to be caught up on, but the planes due to land and take off today were due to be going other places, so not only are all the people in the wrong places, but the planes are too.

The back up solution should be no where near the main supply.

This really is basic stuff....

Not wise after the event, it was my partners job when he worked for BT to make sure things like MOD bases, had resilience.

A large number of houses (tens of thousands) lost power, and some were evacuated (due to the plume of smoke). Thousands still didn’t have power at 5am. I think what you’ve heard plays down the impacts.

According to SSEN (https://powertrack.ssen.co.uk/powertrack#QQ0573) apparently 4800 customers are still without power, with 62,000 having been restored.

The map shows Southall Green, Harlington, Norwood Green all affected.

My friend was on that Come From Away plane. She still talks about what a weirdly lovely experience it was.

Indeed. Polonium tea anyone, or would you like to try some of our lovely perfume, it's a knockout.
Anyone remember the poisoned umbrella incident.
Interesting times.

Nice and quiet under the flightpath. Is that birdsong I hear?

People moaning that there should be an emergency backup system to deal with such an unusual situation probably the same people ppl who would moan about investment needed to create and maintain such a system needed once in a blue moon!

substations aren’t big enough to have backup supplies completely isolated. You could argue maybe we need tiny backup hubs in areas. I’ve no idea where you’d put that in an already over crowded developed area like Heathrow.

i know hospitals have their own generator backups. So obviously those are completely isolated from supply. There must be a good reason why Heathrow can’t do that, otherwise they’d have done it.

I’m suspicious regarding cause of fire.

They should get power from more than one sub station... its basic stuff.

They may have taken the view that they don't need back up geni's and batteries as its never happened before.... ie it costs too much.

My son is an Air Traffic controller, based in Swanwick which covers the country rather than individual airports
he was on a night shift last night and has stayed at work to sleep rather than go home
havent had chance to speak to him yet but I’m assuming they’re very busy

Probably down to size. Heathrow is so massive, each of the terminals is bigger than a hospital. And as others have said - where do you put it, other than telling people they're having their homes taken by compulsory purchase to build a back up which might never be needed?

Substation fires aren't uncommon - there was one by me a couple of years ago. https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/fire-crews-battling-blaze-electrical-24712422 I bet if you google "substation fire" and the name of your town and county there will be something in the last 5-10 years.

Lol!
Yes fires in sub stations are so rare and Heathrow is just a little regional airport.

This incident will cost, overall, billions and result in a major collapse in confidence in LHR as a hub airport.

It's expensive. Friend has a business supplying and maintenance on the huge generators for hospitals. I was in the hospital during a thunderstorm power went out, generators cut in smoothly.

Can't see airports building that cost in

Like I said. I’d be amazed if they don’t. Given parts of Heathrow is nearer other substations it’s unlikely it is all powered by Hayes. If it can’t run safely, or is concerned it’s a threat against the airport they’ll pull the flights.

Hayes is a large substation specifically because of Heathrow, others won’t be able to supply the entire thing and maintain its own services