There's a big fire at an electricity substation in Hayes (no, not the Bromley one, the other one) that's taken out the power to Heathrow and the surrounding area. This is also affecting the Elizabeth Line, with severe delays west of Paddington, and no service between Hayes & Harlington and Heathrow. It doesn't appear to be affecting the eastern end of the line as yet, but there may be knock-on effects as the day progresses, so it's probably worth allowing more time for your journey than usual if you use it. Weirdly TFL aren't reporting any issues with the Piccadilly Line, which also goes to Heathrow, but who knows how long that'll last?
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Infrastructure on its arse but the shareholders get a nice big dividend year after year!
That said, the national grid isn't really in a position to be able to supply everything completely redundantly, and since this substation would appear to have taken out multiple redundant points further down the line, it's often not as straightforward as people think to provide a secondary supply.
Put it another way - pay more taxes and get a better service. Or, alternatively, pay more money for your privatised electricity.
Is it a political or non political comment?
An no I don’t own shares in Thames…..
A those that do have seen them go from £125 to £75 over the last 5 years, which I doubt very much is made up for in their Dividend payments.
Counter-terror officers from the Metropolitan Police are leading the investigation into a major fire that has closed Heathrow Airport.
The force said there was "currently no indication of foul play" but officers were retaining an "open mind at this time" into the cause of the blaze.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg5dg4p2l0o
It was explained to them that controlled burning of vegetation for conservation purposes has been taking place.
Another said that the lockdowns were to keep people indoors whilst wires were put across the sky to control us.
What the fire at this sub station shows, is that our infrastructure is very vulnerable to those who might want to disrupt us.
“Critical infrastructure like that obviously requires a back-up. Having spoken to an industry expert, it appears that Heathrow had changed its back-up systems in order for it to be net zero compliant. And therefore they had got rid of their diesel generators and have moved towards a biomass generator that was designed not to completely replace the grid but work alongside the grid.
“Basically, their net zero compliant back-up system had completely failed in its core function at the first time of asking. It beggars belief.”
Think I'll wait for further detail of the official kind.
(Edit- Form of Biomass known as HVO runs in diesel engines without any upgrade/replacement needed. Other types of biomass also available)
According to the BBC (far more reliable) a source at Heathrow said that they have "multiple sources" of energy at the airport - with diesel generators and "uninterruptable power supplies" in place.
The source says that when the power outage happened the back up systems "all operated as expected".
The systems, however, are not enough to run the whole airport, hence the decision to close it down.
The source says the airport is in the process of redirecting power to the affected parts of the operation – but that it "takes time".