Whether or not. The yet to be determined cause.
We have experienced the same effect. Of Electromagnetic weapons. ie High Energy Lasers/High Powered Frequency Microwaves.
In Both of which currently [At least not published] the release source/location is undetectable.
One known effect, was tested on Iraq. Which singularly terminated the war.
Building emergency Sub Stations [Undoubtedly near or adjacent to that destroyed]. Is only again, targeted Elastoplast.
A solution is there.
Instead of £Billions spent on Two mega Aircraft Carriers. Without crews!!
“Iron Domes” or Golden .In Trump terminology. Should be prioritised.
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Sorry Annie, my comment was poorly composed…
Exactly my point Lincs. Why couldn’t it provide back up power, and if not, why wasn’t there a suitable backup supply available? Even if the backup supply only kept essential services operational. Closing the whole airport did seem a bit extreme during a power cut, and no doubt it will damage the integrity of the airport for some months to come.
Go design an energy and electrical supply system with your “learnt from the old blokes” engineering genius.
FFS. It was designed to provide heating, not electricity. The connections to terminals 2 and 5 are thermal pipes, not electric cables. I explained this right at the start.
Oh, I got it wrong. The problem with net zero is that it can’t magic up the perfect solution right when its needed. Who knew?
Well! Well! Well! So there was sufficient power from an alternative source says the national grid…
Heathrow’s chief executive had already said the shutdown it caused 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.
Put a computer in charge and you will have problems, once you turn them off they need time to boot up and no one person knows how to work them properly. Connect said computer to the internet and it will really screw things up.
Who built the computers Heathrow are using? Fujitsu?
Sometimes all these university trained electricians tend to overthink things. Just ask us old blokes for a proper job…
During the war our local RAF base used to get fifty Lancaster bombers off the ground in half an hour, no computers then! And they generated their own electricity, didn’t rely on the national grid, that’s probably owned by some Russian bloke these days.
Tally Ho! roger, over and out…
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"It appears that a transformer fire in the North Hyde 275kV substation caused the power outage (videos from the scene clearly show one of the large power transformers ablaze). This is a large electrical substation which supplies the area to the northeast of Heathrow airport "
The substation was 275kV - what kind of heating is that?
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Given that Info.
As I’m sure you “Leckies” [In RN. “Amp Tramps” 
] know.
About 10. Average Domestic Properties. [1,000 SqM.] !!
Nasty stuff…(
The highest for me was 132kV at a steel works.
The T2 energy station which is sited in Heathrow and powered with woodchip was designed to provide heating and some electricity to terminals 2 and 5.
The North Hyde substation over 5 miles away provides electricity to a large chunk of West London.
I was not referring to the substation. I was explaining the function of the T2 biomass energy centre.
Yes, others have mentioned that too. But could such chip operation cause such extensive damage ?
It didn’t. It was nothing to do with the substation fire. It continued working.
So why the extreme fire if it was just a woodchip plant? And that it needed the entire Heathrow complex needed to shut down?
the power plant that was on fire isn’t powered by woodchips but by the national power grid.
The woodchip-powered energy centre in T2 has nothing to do with the fire.
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Thanks Annie…
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Something is very fishy about this whole episode…
I don’t think we are getting the full story… 
I agree, Mr Fox. For, me it is the scale of the issue given that Heathrow was completely shut down.
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Yes that’s what makes me suspicious Besoeker. Something as important as the busiest airport in Europe is shut down for 24 hours because of a power outage just doesn’t sit right with me.
Even our local hospital can be up and running in minutes during a power failure without even affecting the computers which are on a fail safe system.
Yes, I wonder…
As it happens my sister is in hospital and they had a power failure a day or so ago. I don’t know if it was her ward or the whole hospital but it was about five minutes before it came back on. Hospitals need emergency systems. Heathrow didn’t…
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it’s exposed a weakness that will now be fixed. The insurance payout will be astronomical. I’d hate to be the accountant having to work any of that out.
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