National Grid's maintenance the damning failure identified by report into fire that sparked Heathrow chaos
A fire at the National Grid substation at North Hyde, which supplies Heathrow Airport, was caused by the "catastrophic failure" of a bushing in a high-voltage transformer at the site.
A bushing is made of paper and foil, soaked in oil.
The resulting fire, which knocked out the substation and in turn, power to more than 70,000 customers, including the west London airport, led to 1,300 flight cancellations affecting nearly 300,000 travellers.
0:51
The bushing on which the blame falls is the insulated wire that at North Hyde was one of three carrying a whopping 275kV of electricity into the transformer.
In many transformers - especially older ones like this installed in 1968 - bushings are insulated by several layers of paper wrapped around alternating layers of metal foil, all soaked in a special insulating "bushing oil".
But if air bubbles or moisture get into the absorbent paper, it loses its insulating power.
As the report found, the most likely cause of the fire at North Hyde was "moisture entering the bushing causing a short circuit."
That short circuit caused a spark that ignited the oil in the bushing, and in turn, the 150 litres of oil that insulates and cools the transformer, resulting in an inferno.
0:49
The result was a fire so catastrophic, it took out not just one transformer at the site but also its sister transformer next to it.
Oil and paper insulators date back to the turn of the last century, and they work perfectly well if properly maintained.
And it is National Grid's maintenance that is the damning failure identified by this report.
The report finds that the highest "category 1" moisture reading was identified during inspection of the doomed bushing in 2018.
According to National Grid's procedures, that reading should have resulted in its immediate replacement.
Yet, for some reason, no action was taken. In fact, the report finds, routine maintenance of the failing transformer was deferred in 2022 - potentially another missed chance to rectify the fault.
National Grid said in response to the report that it has already carried out an "end-to-end review" of its relevant inspection and maintenance processes. The review also found that no other maintenance red flags have been missed.
It's nonetheless a serious failing and explains why Ofgem, the energy regulator, has now ordered an enforcement investigation into our largest grid operator.
It raises questions, too, about the level of investment made by privatised network companies in maintaining or replacing ageing infrastructure.
Recent analysis by Common Wealth found that all our electricity network operators have underspent their budgets for replacing grid hardware.
This is money they are allowed by Ofgem to add to customers' bills as part of "network charges". Those charges are set to rise again in Ofgem's latest review.
Other infrastructure companies, our water firms in particular, stand accused of "sweating" ageing assets to increase their profits.
A key question for Ofgem's investigation into National Grid is whether money for maintenance and replacement was instead going toward their profits, at the expense of customers and ultimately the resilience of our electricity supply.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
40 minutes ago
- BBC News
Bradford 2025: Black communities call for more City of Culture consultation
Members of Bradford's black communities have called for more representation in City of Culture events, amid concerns they have felt "excluded" from the McFarlane, chief of the African Caribbean Achievement Project which received funding from organisers, said the group was "very grateful" for the she added: "We are hoping that as the programme develops throughout 2025 there is more effort made to include marginalised communities like ours."Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture said the team had worked to "ensure that the programme reflects the diversity that makes up the Bradford district". Speaking as City of Culture reached its half-way point, Ms McFarlane told the BBC: "I think largely, and this is coming from the black community itself, there have been times we feel quite excluded from the process and not involved in activities."I think they are trying to redress that, but I think with most public-facing services, projects, whatever, we tend to be a bit of an addendum and that has been noticed."She added: "There's tonnes of staff down there, so I can't understand why the outreach programme is so weak."There's a thriving black community and we're all doing things, it's just that we need to be included in the programming." Dr Olushola Kolawole is a lecturer at the University of Bradford and the executive director for the African Business Association in Yorkshire."When the programme was being designed, we were not carried along in the designing of the programme," Dr Kolawole said."Consultation was really poor."He said: "I think they focused more on the white community and the Asian community and they left behind the black community because we're not carried along, we're not consulted."According to Bradford Council, the Bradford district - which includes areas like Ilkley and Shipley - is 61.1% white and 32.1% Asian or British 2% of the population - around 10,000 people - are black, but Dr Kolawole said there had been other issues. Dr Kolawole highlighted an event in January held in Keighley for the Meet Our Mothers cookbook celebrating home said people expected to be cooking from their own cultures only to find that a different chef was hired."They hired a white chef, not even a black chef," Dr Kolawole said."They were asking some of our mothers that were involved to come and be tasting the food that was prepared by the chef."And we said no, this is embarrassing."Although Dr Kolawole acknowledged there had been some black representation in the year of culture, he said there had not been enough members of the community asked to participate."These are not the people that are based in Bradford," he said."They are not based in Bradford, so I am talking about getting the grass roots involved."You can bring black people there, but do they know the culture of Bradford? "Do they know what is meant to believe in Bradford?" Cleveland Simmons, an 82-year-old also known as "Bradford's music man", said the year of culture had been "fairly good" so who have spent any time in the city centre will no doubt have seen Mr Simmons with his boom box playing tunes."It could be better by involving the communities," he whether black communities had been involved enough, he said: "It could be taken up a step."For most black folks it's either food or music and that's something that can be escalated."A few more events involving black folks and I think that would make them feel part of Bradford 2025." Organisers highlighted an exhibition by Ethiopian artist Aïda Muluneh, a mural to local musician Mikey Roots and a display of photographs of Bradford's African Caribbean communities by Victor Wedderburn as examples of celebrating black 2025 UK City of Culture said later in the year Benin artist Angélique Kidjo would perform her African Symphony and a festival of Kenyan music and culture would take place in Manningham in September.A spokesperson said: "Please note that the programme announced so far isn't everything that is being presented across 2025, with more to follow in the coming months." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
44 minutes ago
- BBC News
Coastguard rescues 40 people from stranded boat near Brixham
A passenger boat carrying 40 people has been rescued by coastguard crews after it ran aground in South Devon on Coastguard said the vessel's engine failed after it hit a submerged object off Man Sands near Brixham at about 19:30 BST. Torbay RNLI Lifeboat and Brixham Coastguard Rescue Team were both tasked to assist in the rescue. The vessel made its way to Brixham Harbour escorted by the lifeboat where all passengers were able to safely disembark, the coastguard said.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Is it ever OK to cry at work?
From as early as 1500 BC, humans have been speculating about tears. The Old Testament describes them as a by-product of the heart, while Hippocrates believed they were triggered by the mind. In his 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin declared them as 'purposeless'. One hundred and fifty three years later, Rachel Reeves would likely beg to differ. Whatever the reason for yesterday's tears at PMQs, it soon became apparent that on the matter of whether they should ever be shed in the workplace, as with so many other issues these days, Britain is divided. To cry, or not to cry? That is the question. Our writers drily battle it out. It's fine to cry in the workplace 'Everybody hurts sometimes,' sang REM in 1992. If everybody hurts sometimes, it stands to reason that everybody cries sometimes, too. Although if you are a woman, perhaps it's best not to do so in the office. This was certainly the message semaphored by my male peers. My first serious job, as a section editor of a broadsheet in the late 1990s, saw me occasionally being yelled at across the newsroom by my male boss, an equal opportunities shouter who lost his temper at female and male employees alike. My male colleagues wouldn't have dreamed of crying, so neither did I. I'd already discerned that female reporters were often viewed as 'soft' and 'emotional', as though these traits were weaknesses. I wanted to appear strong. And so I remained, commanding myself not to cry on several occasions over the following fifteen or so years, the most challenging of which was when I was hauled into a meeting, heavily pregnant, and lambasted by my (female) editor in front of four other senior members of staff who appeared to have been assembled solely to witness my humiliation. When it comes to staving off inconvenient tears, every woman has her own tricks. Some dig their fingernails covertly into their palm as a distraction. Others fix their gaze on a point in the room and regard it, unblinking, willing their eyes not to well up. Whether Rachel Reeves employed such tactics, we will never know. Had she lived in Ancient Greece, her wet eyes would have been commended. In Homer's Iliad, the warriors' tears were viewed as a sign of their forbearance. When Winston Churchill cried – a not infrequent occurrence – he was revered for his sensitivity. In 2025, 'soft' and 'emotional' have rightly come to be regarded as strengths, at least to some extent. It's a strange sort of logic where anger is acceptable in the workplace while tears are still frowned upon. Which is more toxic? Crying at work shouldn't be seen as a sign of weakness, but as a sign that you are human, and that you deeply care about the job in hand. When AI comes for our jobs, we'll miss these signs of humanity. I hope my daughters feel that their worth in the workplace isn't dependent on them acting like machines. More than this, I hope they aren't replaced by them. The lump in my throat was the first sign, followed by a flushing of my cheeks, and before I could stop it the tears flowed. Suddenly, whatever had caused them felt inconsequential – I was being told by my boss my writing wasn't up to scratch, I think, but my crime of crying in the workplace quickly eclipsed any professional misstep, rendering me weak and humiliated. Or so I thought at the time. Throughout my office-based professional life, I cried when criticised – so much so that I had to reassure editors it was okay to chastise me: I would take their comments on board as I wept. Which might not have won me employee of the month, but it didn't mean I wasn't putting in the effort. The opposite, in fact – I was crying precisely because I cared. Which is why I relate to Rachel Reeves' outburst in the Commons yesterday. Whatever your view of the Chancellor, she's hardly a slacker. Her tears reveal she's emotionally invested in the job, and shouldn't that be applauded? When fewer of us are bothering to show up to work at all, shouldn't those of us who do be granted grace for giving a damn about it? Surely, we have moved on from binary tropes of Office B------ and Cry Babies, especially as tears can be as instinctive and uncontrollable a physiological reaction as sneezing. We can have a crying habit and a core of steel – I wouldn't have survived in journalism were I to crumble at the slightest provocation. The older I get the better – and braver – I think it is to be honest about our emotions, be it with our boss or the British public. I'm more likely to warm to someone who shows their vulnerability – and suspicious of those who don't. Besides, there's something about the pressurised environment of an office and potential for humiliation in it that makes crying more likely. Working from home, away from scrutiny, I sob less but empathise with criers more – their critics revealing more about themselves than those who need the tissues. No, it's really not OK to cry at work Stand me under a Lancaster bomber (my dad flew one in the war) and I'm sobbing with the thousands in The Mall; show me an appeal for a donkey sanctuary, or a picture of a dead whale tangled in fishing line and everything gets blurry. A child handing a bouquet to the Queen… Anyway you get the picture. I'm not a stiff upper-lipper but the only reason I would cry at work is if a colleague had collapsed and died – ideally, at my feet. Otherwise, being a crybaby at work is an absolute no-no. It shows a lack of resilience. So much better to take a deep breath and diffuse it with humour, maybe swivel around, shrugging 'Sorry. I'm having a bad chair day'. Mostly, people cry at work because they're being told off. Or to put it another way – bullied. Bullies want to make people cry, which is why work bullies often harangue junior employees in public. In fact, A-level bullying was almost a job requirement for senior editorial staff on Fleet Street 30 years ago. I remember one notorious tabloid bully jumping over three desks to scream in the face of a young reporter, who had compiled the TV listings. 'Lucy! Coronation Street is on Wednesday, not b----y Thursday!!' Ludicrous, but terrifying. If only she'd had the courage to laugh in his face, because laughter is the great diffuser. But he knew she hadn't. Many great songs make me cry. Last week, I had to fish out a Kleenex at a music concert when a soul singer launched into Sam Cooke's soaring, heartbreaking song of struggle A Change Is Gonna Come. Now, if Keir Starmer had launched into that song, at PMQs, I would understand if Rachel Reeves' mascara began running down her cheeks. But if she'd then jumped up, slapped a thigh and socked it to him with Aretha Franklin's Respect she would have brought tears… of joy… to my eyes. I've cried in many strange places over the years – in a Pret, at a dog show and at 30,000 feet after watching Erin Brockovich. But I'm proud to say I've never cried at work. Well, not in front of anyone, anyway. That's what the work toilets are for. We've all felt the tell-tale signs that we're about to start blubbing, but in my experience you can normally hold yourself together until you're away from your colleagues and save your dignity. Although scientists still don't understand exactly why we cry, it's normally when your brain is overwhelmed by an emotion – anger, frustration, surprise, happiness. I think crying in the office shows you're not in control of your emotions, it makes you appear unpredictable and volatile. Although I'm all for the catharsis of a well-timed weep occasionally, I don't think it should be in the boardroom or – as in the case of Rachel Reeves – at PMQs. It doesn't exactly scream professionalism to be snivelling and wiping away tears and snot when you expect people to take you seriously. I think I feel so strongly about not crying at work because I once had a boss who loved to have a good cry at her desk. I remember during my first few weeks, she turned up to work wailing uncontrollably. 'Are you OK?' I asked her, thinking perhaps a parent had died. 'I had this dream last night,' she spluttered between sobs. 'About my ex boyfriend.' No event was too minor to trigger full-blown waterworks – ripped tights, a bad edit, a missed email. It became so bad that I was scared to approach her with anything remotely negative in case I set her off. Although I know that her bosses had a word about keeping her emotions in check, she was clearly just one of life's very sensitive types. Which made the rest of us feel we were walking on eggshells. Of course there are times when life's events make you feel more prone to crying, but if you're going through something traumatic at home, then you shouldn't be at work.
