The truth about a power failure that closed Heathrow “is being withheld”, claims Nigel Farage. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is expected to face questions in the House of Commons on Monday over the day-long closure of Europe’s busiest airport, which affected about 200,000 passengers. But Reform leader Mr Farage says the Government is determined to avoid telling the truth.
He said on X: “Heathrow Airport had no diesel generator backup. It was removed as part of their drive to net zero. Dubai Airport and many military bases do have diesel generators and their aircraft would have continued flying. The truth about this disaster is being withheld.”
There is currently no clear explanation for the closure, which came after a fire knocked out an electricity substation in Hayes, near Heathrow, on Thursday evening.
Initially, it was thought Heathrow did not have enough power to operate and flights were not able to resume until Friday evening. However, the chief executive of National Grid has insisted Heathrow Airport had “enough power” from remaining substations despite Friday’s shutdown.
John Pettigrew said two substations were “always available for the distribution network companies and Heathrow to take power”.
In his first comments since the disruption, Mr Pettigrew told the Financial Times: “There was no lack of capacity from the substations.
“Each substation individually can provide enough power to Heathrow.”
The chief executive of the electricity and gas utility company added: “Two substations were always available for the distribution network companies and Heathrow to take power.
“Losing a substation is a unique event — but there were two others available.”
In response to the comments, a Heathrow Airport spokesman said: “As the National Grid’s chief executive, John Pettigrew, noted, he has never seen a transformer failure like this in his 30 years in the industry.
“His view confirms that this was an unprecedented incident and that it would not have been possible for Heathrow to operate uninterrupted.
“Hundreds of critical systems across the airport were required to be safely powered down and then safely and systematically rebooted. Given Heathrow’s size and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge.”
Ed Miliband has ordered the National Energy System Operator (Neso) to “urgently investigate” the power outage caused by the substation fire. The Energy Secretary is working with regulator Ofgem and using powers under the Energy Act to formally launch the grid operator’s investigation.
Neso is expected to report to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Ofgem with initial findings within six weeks.
Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police initially led the investigation, but the force said the fire is not believed to be suspicious. London Fire Brigade is now leading a probe that will focus on the electrical distribution equipment.
Meanwhile, an internal review of the airport’s crisis management plans and its response to Friday’s power outage will be undertaken by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, who is an independent member of Heathrow’s board.
A Heathrow spokesman said: “In line with our airline partners, our objective was to reopen as soon as safely and practically possible after the fire.
“The emergency services and hundreds of airport colleagues worked tirelessly throughout Friday to ensure the safe reopening of the airport.
“Their success meant that over the weekend, we were able to focus on operating a full schedule of over 2,500 flights and serving over 400,000 passengers.”
