Thanks Lincs, common sense has never been my strong point, but don’t shoot the messenger. I posted the clip in good faith because it sounded plausible, and I must admit that I do like to have a prod at net zero because I think everyone is being conned, but with your apparent abundance of common sense you don’t need to believe it Lincs, just move on…
“Nothing to see here for you Lincs”… 
1 Like
Great stuff LongDriver, and very interesting…
1 Like
OGF you posted saying this was the cause of the fire, but clearly the T2 energy centre which is inside the airport, didn’t cause a substation way outside the airport to catch fire.
It probably was the cause of the fire and the Airport have engaged in a ‘Blame Game’ and trying to squirm out of it. They are not likely to admit to that it was anything to with sustainable electricity. Not very sustainable is it…
Questions need to be answered like was the substation the only provider of power to the whole airport? If it wasn’t, why wasn’t there a suitable standby? And if not, why not? For something as important as an airport it sounds like its been a massive weak link.
Mr Common Sense Lincs claims to have easily researched how and why the fire occurred, why didn’t someone else spot this? They should have asked Lincs and all this could have easily been avoided. We need more ‘Lincs’ designing our power distribution systems…
LD quote" the Bucholz relay failed to disconnect the primary windings." unquote. Sounds painful , lets hope there is a cure for it soon. 
1 Like
Yes realspeed, lets hope all the other airports haven’t followed Heathrow’s example or else we’re going to be in a right mess when those Bulcholz relays fail…I hope they weren’t made in China like all of the rest of the electricals we rely on…
Didn’t I read somewhere that the WEF want to close all the airports…You commoners are getting to be a bit too well travelled…
OGF the T2 energy centre at Heathrow didn’t cause a fire in North Hyde substation which is located in hayes on the other side of the M4 motorway over 5 miles away! - the clip you posted doesn’t say this
1 Like
The clip I posted doesn’t say that the fire was started in the T2 energy centre Annie, but it should have provided backup when the power failed and it didn’t…
A source at Heathrow said it did however have back-up options for certain key systems, but kickstarting the alternative power supplies for the whole airport took time.
The systems need to be checked to ensure they are working properly.
A Heathrow source said its back-up diesel generators and uninterruptable power supplies in place all operated as expected.
The problem lay with the National Grid, the source said, pointing out thousands of homes had been left without power, not just the airport.
There are two National Grid substations close to Heathrow: one at North Hyde, north of the airport, and one at Laleham, south of the airport, according to energy analysis firm Montel Group.
It appears that only the North Hyde substation is connected to Heathrow through the local distribution network, said Phil Hewitt, director at the firm.
“This potential lack of resilience at a critical national and international infrastructure site is worrying,” he said. “An airport as large and as important as Heathrow should not be vulnerable to a single point of failure.”
How could the T2 biomass energy centre provide back up power if it wasn’t designed to provide back up power? You might as well highlight random energy sources around west London. You seem to be criticizing the T2 centre simply because it is biomass and you don’t like any of them environmental thingy-me-bobs - rather than having any sound basis for the criticism. Your claim amounts to “all environmental stuff is rubbish because one energy centre could not magically change its function from one thing to another overnight.”
The whole stink over this airport closure was that the Heathrow management had not put a robust electricity back up capacity in place. They had emergency diesel generators but not sufficient power for the whole airport and all its requirements.
But, even if the Buchholz relay failed, there would be a fundamental problem before the relay failed.
1 Like
Yes, there was obviously a major fault or a hefty overload that caused that particular transformer to explode in flames. The whole substation was probably running at or near max capacity so that the burden load of a fault overwhelmed the safety systems. The next one along the line is Laleham 275Kv sub and also feeds into Heathrow but would require duty watch switching and then only on request. To simply switch without extensive checking could put even more of the grid at risk.
1 Like
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.
1 Like
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…
1 Like
"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?
2 Likes
Given that Info.
As I’m sure you “Leckies” [In RN. “Amp Tramps” 
] know.
About 10. Average Domestic Properties. [1,000 SqM.] !!