'We warned of power issues before Heathrow outage'

Andrew Dakers said his business group had warned of "stress" on the power network including seeing "businesses experiencing cables melting in the ground"

Business groups in west London have said it was "no surprise"' there was a power outage at Heathrow Airport last week.

The West London Business group said its members had warned National Grid, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) and watchdog Ofgem for some time about a lack of electricity capacity in the area, including that the energy supply was oversubscribed.

It follows a substation fire in Hayes, west London on Friday, which knocked out the power supply to Heathrow Airport and triggered its closure.

John Pettigrew, from National Grid, told the Financial Times the fire was a "unique event", but that two other substations remained operational and capable of powering the airport.

Heathrow's chief executive previously said the shutdown was not due to a lack of power, but was due to the time it took to switch from the damaged substation to the other two.

However Andrew Dakers, chief executive of West London Business, said he felt the incident reflected an "enormously frustrating" ongoing issue with power supplies in the area, which it had been monitoring.

He called for ministerial oversight of National Grid upgrades, which he also argued needed to be sped up.

"West London is one of the best locations in the world to invest and we've got people that are standing by wanting to build new homes, wanting to build new industrial sheds, Heathrow wanting to expand the airport - but none of that's really possible without a decent power supply," Mr Dakers explained.

While he said it was important to wait for the outcome of investigations into the cause of the substation fire, Mr Dakers added "the fragility of the network was indeed no surprise".

While Heathrow Airport is up and running again, wider questions have been raised by businesses and politicians about network capacity issues in recent years

"We have seen the wider west London networks under stress; we occasionally get businesses experiencing cables melting in the ground," said Mr Dakers.

"We need a power supply with headroom.

"In three of our boroughs - Hillingdon which is home to Heathrow, Ealing and Hounslow - there's no headroom left."

'Woeful' situation

Three inquiries are ongoing into the fire and subsequent power outage - one by the government, another by London Fire Brigade, and Heathrow Airport's own.

Councillor Shantanu Rajawat, Labour and Co-operative leader of neighbouring Hounslow Council, said the recent fire exposed the issue of "grid capacity and capability within the network" in west London.

He said while the fire was shocking and disturbing, he believed it was "symptomatic of a lack of investment in infrastructure from the previous government".

"What they left the new government was quite frankly woeful," he said.

Councillor Shantanu Rajawat, leader of Hounslow Council, said the fire was "symptomatic of a lack of investment in infrastructure from the previous government"

He added the council had been working with both the government and suppliers to free up additional capacity.

"The fact of the matter is there are developers in west London looking to develop sites to bring much needed housing into the area; there is a requirement for data centres and all that that brings, and of course we have to be mindful of the fact that Heathrow is on our doorstep as well.

"There is a lot of infrastructure in the area that is requiring electricity capacity... this is a very small example of what that could look like."

Mr Rajawat stressed the problem was so bad some developers were having to buy electricity supply "from many, many miles away and dig trenches and fit wiring" because they cannot connect to local supplies.

It comes after some housing developments in west London risked delays in 2022 due to a lack of electricity capacity.

They were eventually able to go ahead after the energy supplier fixed the issue.

Ofgem said it was important to understand how last week's disruption happened and that would be established by the review announced by the Secretary of State.

It also said it regularly met with the Greater London Authority and other parties about network issues in west London, and it kept in regular contact with the relevant energy companies.

A NESO spokesperson said: "NESO welcomes the government's commission to review the power outage incident impacting Heathrow and surrounding areas.

"We will now work with all relevant stakeholders to understand the lessons that can be learned to improve future resilience of Great Britain's energy system."

National Grid and the Conservatives have been contacted for a response.