Power Outage at Heathrow Airport - Realiability and Resilience

[Elect117]

The airport operations may be considered critical now that there was a failure, but I've worked on loads of critical projects that during design and construction the schedule and cost make the criticality questionable from the owner / operator's standpoint.

I hear that all the time also. Money talks with redundancy. Nothing like having to buy extra paralleling devices and switchgears just for back up. It is a big discussion on City projects and how / level of redundancy is needed.

 

[jim dungar]

The airport operations may be considered critical now that there was a failure, but I've worked on loads of critical projects that during design and construction the schedule and cost make the criticality questionable from the owner / operator's standpoint.

I like the projects where redundancy was simply having "two of everthing".
There was little planning concerning automatic transfer and isolation from failed components much less how things could be removed from service for maintenance. I think of facilities with two utility feeds and three on site generators that use a single switchgear lineup of mains and ties.

 

[zbang]

Design flaw? Those are big words to use against a system that was working great for a long time.

It was working great until it didn't work at all - or to put it another way, my car works great until it crashes (then I hope the airbags function).

 

[Besoeker3]

It was working great until it didn't work at all - or to put it another way, my car works great until it crashes (then I hope the airbags function).

A car crash is not quire the same as a total disaster on the scale of a major airport failure.

 

[CoolWill]

A car crash is not quire the same as a total disaster on the scale of a major airport failure.

The scale isn't the point.

 

[Besoeker3]

The scale isn't the point.

So it would be OK for 100 aircraft diverted instead of one?

 

[Joao]

I dope they do.............

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-into-the-north-hyde-substation-outage-terms-of-reference/neso-review-into-the-north-hyde-substation-outage-terms-of-reference

 

[Joao]

According NESO (UK TSO):

NESO will submit an initial report to the Secretary of State and Ofgem within 6 weeks, with an initial assessment of the data available at this stage of the review.

NESO will provide a final report to the Secretary of State and Ofgem by end of June 2025, which will include recommendations and lessons for the future and where possible, a proposed implementation plan.

Key findings and recommendations of the review will be published by NESO.

 

[CoolWill]

So it would be OK for 100 aircraft diverted instead of one?

Not even related to what I said.

 

[Joao]

I saw something in youtube and prepared some photos. Link for youtube is inside file.

Uninterruptible battery-powered supplies provide enough power to keep safety critical systems - such as aircraft landing systems - running. These supplies do not have enough power to keep the whole airport in operation.

Heathrow also has a biomass-fuelled combined heating and power station, producing 10 megawatts of power, which feeds electricity and heat to Terminal Two.

The fire at North Hyde Point in Hayes put both the substation, and its backup, out of action. On Friday, Heathrow's main fall-back was the two remaining grid supply points.

The airport's chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, said these remaining grid supply points were capable of powering Heathrow, but only after a complex process.

This involved reallocating the remaining supplies then restarting and testing everything from escalators to aircraft fuelling systems - which took most of Friday to achieve.

 

[Besoeker3]

Not even related to what I said.

So what is your point about the Heathrow failure ??

 

[CoolWill]

So what is your point about the Heathrow failure ??

I didn't have a point or make a statement about Heathrow.