Latest news with #NESO
Bloomberg
14-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
UK Grid Operator Boosts Forecast for Electricity Demand Growth
UK power demand is set to increase by more than previously forecast due to higher population growth rates and the electrification of the economy, according to the National Energy System Operator. Electricity demand is expected to grow by more than 30% to a range of 370 to 408 terawatt-hours by 2035, NESO said on Monday. That range is about 8% higher than similar analysis a year ago.
Business Wire
07-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
NGG Investors Have Opportunity to Join National Grid plc Fraud Investigation with the Schall Law Firm
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of National Grid plc ('Centene' or 'the Company') (NYSE: NGG) for violations of the securities laws. The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. The UK's National Energy System Operator (NESO) published its summary findings of its investigation into the fire that shut down Heathrow Airport on March 20, 2025. The NESO report states that a known fault in National Grid's electrical substation was the cause of the fire, adding that the Company was aware of the fault since 2018 but failed to fix it. According to media outlets in the UK, Heathrow airport is considering legal action against National Grid. Based on this news, ADRs of National Grid fell by more than 5% on July 2, 2025. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate. We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2460, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at or by email at bschall@ The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Five takeaways from report into fire that shut Heathrow down
A report into a fire at an electricity substation that resulted in Heathrow Airport shutting down for nearly a day, causing chaos for more than 200,000 passengers, has been released. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) identified the likely cause of the fire, and said that National Grid which operates the substation was warned about a fault seven years ago. Here are five key findings from the report. The NESO report answered one of the key questions – what caused the fire? The device which caught fire was a "supergrid transformer", which takes high voltage electricity from the transmission grid and reduces it to a lower voltage for the next stage of its route to Heathrow Airport and surrounding houses. Inspectors said the likely cause was moisture getting into the high-voltage "bushing" – insulation around the connections. That caused a short-circuit and "arcing" - electric sparks like those in a spark plug - which resulted in a "catastrophic failure". That caused the oil which is used to cool the transformer to catch fire, and took two transformers offline, cutting power to Heathrow. The report said signs of moisture were detected at North Hyde in July 2018. National Grid's guidance said these were "an imminent fault" that should be replaced. But the issue wasn't fixed at the time. In 2022, basic maintenance on the transformer was deferred. Multiple further attempts were made to schedule maintenance, but none went ahead. Heathrow considering legal action against National Grid over fire Heathrow uses as much electricity as a small city, and it has three connections to the national grid. But it new that if one of them went down, it would have to close the airport for 10 to 12 hours while key systems were connected to the other sources of supply. It did not think it was a likely scenario, so it was not considered worthwhile to spend the money to fix it – which Heathrow has previously said would have cost a billion pounds. NESO said having three connections to the grid meant there were "opportunities" to improve Heathrow's resilience of supply. National Grid and the energy supplier SSEN knew that electricity from North Hyde went to Heathrow Airport. But they did not know that Heathrow would have to shut down if that supply was interrupted. Perhaps if they had, they would have taken a different approach to maintenance. Energy suppliers do not currently know if their customers are counted as "critical national infrastructure (CNI)" – sectors such as transport, defence, government or communications. The report calls better communications between CNI operators and their energy suppliers to ensure that supplies do not get interrupted. Heathrow came under a lot of criticism after the fire - including the revelation that the chief executive Thomas Woldbye was asleep in bed when the decision was taken to close the airport. NESO said its report was not written to "apportion blame", but Heathrow says it is now considering legal action against National Grid. In its view the report described "clear and repeated failings" which "could and should" have prevented the fire. It said it expected National Grid to "take responsibility for those failings." National Grid said it had a comprehensive maintenance programme, and would co-operate closely with the Ofgem investigation.
BBC News
02-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Five takeaways from report into fire that shut Heathrow down
A report into a fire at an electricity substation that resulted in Heathrow Airport shutting down for nearly a day, causing chaos for more than 200,000 passengers, has been National Energy System Operator (NESO) identified the likely cause of the fire, and said that National Grid which operates the substation was warned about a fault seven years ago. Here are five key findings from the report. 1. The fire was caused by moisture The NESO report answered one of the key questions – what caused the fire?The device which caught fire was a "supergrid transformer", which takes high voltage electricity from the transmission grid and reduces it to a lower voltage for the next stage of its route to Heathrow Airport and surrounding said the likely cause was moisture getting into the high-voltage "bushing" – insulation around the caused a short-circuit and "arcing" - electric sparks like those in a spark plug - which resulted in a "catastrophic failure".That caused the oil which is used to cool the transformer to catch fire, and took two transformers offline, cutting power to Heathrow. 2. National Grid knew about the problem seven years before the fire The report said signs of moisture were detected at North Hyde in July 2018. National Grid's guidance said these were "an imminent fault" that should be replaced. But the issue wasn't fixed at the 2022, basic maintenance on the transformer was deferred. Multiple further attempts were made to schedule maintenance, but none went ahead. 3. Heathrow knew a problem with one of its three grid connections would close the airport Heathrow uses as much electricity as a small city, and it has three connections to the national grid. But it new that if one of them went down, it would have to close the airport for 10 to 12 hours while key systems were connected to the other sources of did not think it was a likely scenario, so it was not considered worthwhile to spend the money to fix it – which Heathrow has previously said would have cost a billion pounds. NESO said having three connections to the grid meant there were "opportunities" to improve Heathrow's resilience of supply. 4. National Grid didn't know how important the substation was National Grid and the energy supplier SSEN knew that electricity from North Hyde went to Heathrow Airport. But they did not know that Heathrow would have to shut down if that supply was interrupted. Perhaps if they had, they would have taken a different approach to maintenance. Energy suppliers do not currently know if their customers are counted as "critical national infrastructure (CNI)" – sectors such as transport, defence, government or communications. The report calls better communications between CNI operators and their energy suppliers to ensure that supplies do not get interrupted. 5. Heathrow is not happy Heathrow came under a lot of criticism after the fire - including the revelation that the chief executive Thomas Woldbye was asleep in bed when the decision was taken to close the airport. NESO said its report was not written to "apportion blame", but Heathrow says it is now considering legal action against National Grid. In its view the report described "clear and repeated failings" which "could and should" have prevented the fire. It said it expected National Grid to "take responsibility for those failings." National Grid said it had a comprehensive maintenance programme, and would co-operate closely with the Ofgem investigation.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Yahoo
Heathrow fires: What caused the substation blaze which led to travel chaos
A review into the Heathrow fire that prompted widespread airport chaos earlier this year has been released with its conclusions regarding the serious incident. In March 2025, thousands of passengers were stranded at Heathrow and other airports worldwide after a nearby substation fire at the London airport that left it without electricity. More than 270,000 passengers were impacted by the disaster, with planes grounded and airlines reportedly losing millions of pounds due to the incident, which is thought to be the worst delay experienced at the airport since 2010 when snow forced it to close. Now, a report by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) has laid bare more details about what exactly went wrong. It's also prompted Ofgem to launch its own investigation into what it believes was a 'preventable technical fault' in the National Grid. So what do we know? On March 21, a fire at an electrical substation several miles away from London's busiest terminals led to power being cut across the airport. Reports at the time claim that 70 firefighters rushed to the scene of the fire, which took several hours to be safely extinguished. It wasn't clear initially what had caused the fire, but experts later ruled out foul play. However, it led to Heathrow remaining closed throughout Friday, impacting hundreds of thousands of passengers and leaving thousands of tonnes of cargo stranded. At the time, Heathrow's CEO Thomas Woldbye reportedly turned his phone on silent and went to bed on the night of the shutdown, a move that he was later heavily criticised for. Although some flights started to resume late on the Friday, regular services didn't fully resume until around two days after the incident. This prompted initial concerns about how resilient airport operations were to withstanding such incidents in the future. According to NESO, the fire was caused by a 'catastrophic' failure of a crucial electricity substation component. The report revealed this was linked to moisture entering the substation component, which is believed to have been preventable. 'This review has seen evidence that a catastrophic failure on one of the transformer's high voltage bushings at National Grid Electricity Transmission's 275kV substation in Hayes caused the transformer to catch fire,' Wednesday's review revealed. 'This was most likely caused by moisture entering the bushing, causing an electrical fault.' The report suggests that the electricity may have 'arced' and triggered an ignition in the oil, which prompted the wider fire. Findings also suggest that moisture had been detected in oil samples as early as 2018, 'but mitigating actions appropriate to its severity were not implemented.' Following the release of the report, a Heathrow spokesperson said: 'A combination of outdated regulation, inadequate safety mechanisms, and National Grid's failure to maintain its infrastructure led to this catastrophic power outage.' According to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband: 'The report is deeply concerning, because known risks were not addressed by the National Grid Electricity Transmission, and Ofgem has now opened an official enforcement investigation to consider any possible licence breaches relating to the development and maintenance of its electricity system at North Hyde. Heathrow bosses came under fire following the incident, largely over questions about the airport's energy resilience. Some experts had reportedly warned airport bosses prior to the incident that such risks existed. There were also concerns about how an airport such as Heathrow could respond if there was a national security incident in the future. 'If one fire can shut down Heathrow's primary systems ... it tells you something's badly wrong with our system of management of such disasters,' Alan Mendoza, the executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, told AP at the time.
