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- Written by: John Burke and AI assistance
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The catastrophic sub station fire in Hayes, London - which supplies Heathrow Airport has demontrated several issues.
The catastrophic substation fire in Hayes, London, on March 21, 2025, which disrupted power to Heathrow Airport and thousands of surrounding homes, has exposed critical vulnerabilities in the region’s energy infrastructure. This incident has grounded flights, affected over 1,300 scheduled operations, and highlighted systemic issues in power supply reliability, backup systems, and resilience planning. The key issues demonstrated by this event and additionally Combined Heat and Power (CHP) as a potential alternative, focusing on its relevance to this scenario.
Issues Demonstrated by the Hayes Substation Fire
- Single Point of Failure in Power Infrastructure
The fire at the North Hyde substation, which supplies Heathrow—one of the world’s busiest airports—revealed a significant dependency on a centralized power source. When the substation failed, it not only cut power to the airport but also impacted over 16,300 homes initially, with around 4,900 still without power by early Friday morning. The fact that a single incident could paralyze such a critical transport hub and a large residential area underscores the fragility of relying heavily on one substation without sufficient redundancy. - Inadequate Backup Systems
UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband noted that the fire was so severe it damaged "the potential backup generation" for Heathrow, rendering contingency measures ineffective. This suggests that the existing backup systems—likely diesel generators or secondary grid connections—were either insufficiently robust or too closely tied to the primary substation’s infrastructure. The inability to quickly switch to an alternative power source prolonged the airport’s closure and disrupted global travel networks. - Logistical and Economic Fallout
The closure of Heathrow until midnight on March 21 has led to over 1,300 flight cancellations or diversions, stranding passengers and creating a "logistical nightmare" for airlines. The ripple effects extend globally, with flights from as far as Singapore, the US, and Australia diverted or canceled. Locally, the power outage disrupted businesses and households, amplifying the economic cost. This highlights the broader consequences of energy infrastructure failures in critical areas. - Lack of Resilience to Extreme Events
Despite upgrades to the North Hyde substation in 2021, which included new transformers and circuits to enhance reliability, the system still succumbed to a "catastrophic" fire. The cause remains under investigation, but the incident raises questions about whether current infrastructure is designed to withstand rare but severe events—whether accidental, environmental, or otherwise. Aging equipment could further exacerbate such risks. - Delayed Response and Recovery
Although the London Fire Brigade brought the blaze under control by 6:28 GMT, power restoration efforts by National Grid have been slow, with no clear timeline for full recovery. This reflects challenges in repairing complex electrical infrastructure under emergency conditions and the difficulty of rerouting power from alternative sources in a timely manner.
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) as an Alternative
Combined Heat and Power (CHP), also known as cogeneration, is a decentralized energy system that simultaneously generates electricity and useful heat from a single fuel source, typically natural gas, biomass, or biogas. Unlike traditional power plants that waste heat as a byproduct, CHP captures it for heating or cooling purposes, achieving efficiencies of up to 80-90% compared to 30-50% for conventional grid systems. Here’s how CHP could address the issues exposed by the Hayes fire, with emphasis on its potential role at Heathrow and beyond:
- Decentralized Power Generation
Installing CHP units at or near Heathrow could reduce reliance on a single external substation like North Hyde. By generating power on-site, the airport could maintain operations during grid failures, mitigating the single-point-of-failure risk. For instance, a CHP plant sized to meet Heathrow’s base load (estimated at tens of megawatts for such a large facility) could keep critical systems—runways, terminals, and air traffic control—running independently. - Enhanced Backup and Resilience
CHP systems can serve as a robust backup or primary power source, operating in "island mode" during outages. Unlike the compromised backup generators in this incident, a well-designed CHP system could be isolated from external grid failures and fueled independently (e.g., via gas pipelines or stored fuel). Pairing CHP with battery storage could further ensure uninterrupted power during transitions or fuel supply disruptions. - Energy Efficiency and Cost Savings
Heathrow’s extensive heating and cooling needs—terminals, hangars, and support facilities—make it an ideal candidate for CHP. The captured heat could replace less efficient boilers, reducing energy costs and carbon emissions. For example, a gas-fired CHP unit could supply electricity to the airport while piping hot water or steam to heat buildings, cutting reliance on grid electricity and standalone heating systems. - Reduced Grid Strain
By generating power locally, CHP could alleviate demand on the National Grid, particularly during peak times or emergencies. This would benefit surrounding areas like Hayes and Hounslow, where thousands of homes lost power. A network of smaller CHP installations across critical infrastructure and communities could distribute the load, preventing widespread outages when a substation fails. - Environmental Benefits
While the immediate focus post-fire is reliability, CHP offers a greener alternative to traditional grid power, especially if fueled by renewable biogas or paired with solar thermal systems. Heathrow, which handled 83.9 million passengers in 2024, has sustainability goals that CHP could support by lowering its carbon footprint compared to coal- or gas-heavy grid electricity.
Challenges of Implementing CHP in This Context
- Initial Investment: Retrofitting Heathrow with CHP requires significant upfront costs for equipment, installation, and integration. However, long-term savings and reliability gains could justify this, especially for a high-stakes facility.
- Space Constraints: Airports are space-intensive, and finding room for CHP units could be tricky, though modular systems exist that might fit within existing infrastructure.
- Fuel Dependency: Most CHP systems rely on natural gas, introducing a dependency on gas networks or storage. Diversifying fuel sources (e.g., biogas, oil, aviation fuels, or hydrogen(??)) could mitigate this.
- Regulatory and Planning Hurdles: Deploying CHP would need approval from local authorities, National Grid, and aviation regulators, potentially delaying implementation.
Conclusion
The Hayes substation fire has laid bare the risks of centralized power dependency, inadequate backups, and insufficient resilience in critical infrastructure like Heathrow Airport. CHP offers a compelling alternative by decentralizing power generation, enhancing efficiency, and providing a reliable backup. For Heathrow, a tailored CHP system could ensure operational continuity during grid failures while supporting sustainability goals. Beyond the airport, deploying CHP in surrounding areas could bolster community resilience, reducing the cascading impacts seen in this incident. While not a panacea, CHP merits serious consideration as part of a broader strategy to rethink energy infrastructure in the wake of such a disruptive event.
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...Equally applies to wind, hydro as well
From the US they have noticed the problems with Industrial scale Renewables, the Grid and Instability.
"As the U.S. begins a major push to become the leading player in the global solar revolution, the topic of sprawling solar farms built away from communities vs. small and medium scale solar arrays utilising rooftops and smaller parcels of already developed or degraded land is becoming an increasingly important issue."
"Small and medium scale solar power has the potential to become the Internet of distributed electricity generation – a network resilient to a single point of failure; whether caused by natural disasters or attack by hostile parties."
But this aspect only scratches the surface – decentralised solar {as well as Wind and Hydro} power offers a multitude of other benefits over large scale plants;
- including avoiding “line loss” and heat losses from transformers, associated with remote generation,
- reduction in infrastructure investment {GRID}
- while offering major permanent job creation potential and
- avoiding damage to wildlife habitats, loss of farmlands.
Instead of appropriating undisturbed public lands or utilising productive agricultural land for solar power generation on a massive scale, better use can be made of the very much under-utilised sea of rooftops in our towns and cities. Furthermore, in the UK the brownfield sites, commercial buildings within ctown/city centres offers direct in-building benefits.
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Bio-Methane is simply methane generated from organic wastes {in an oxygen starved environment}. Methane capture from coal mines, and methane from other sources {such as tapping into waste-dumps} is a welcome strategy to utilise the enormous amount of waste, we produce. Estimated at 105bn tonnes globally by the World Bio-Gas Association {see article re -methane here on new tab - close to return here}.
However, it is perfectly OK to use methane from oil/gas exploration too - and with the UK's highly extensive gas grid, its all carried together to provide primary energy. Energy that is easily stored. Unlike that secondary energy source - electricity - which we will discuss further later.
But CHP? Combined Heat AND Power {and sometimes cooling}
We have tried to introduce CHP previously, as an important and strategic alternative to Centralised Electricity Generation. There are major disadvantages with centralised generation;
- Inefficiency discussed previously here {click} and again here {click} and cooling towers explained here {click}
- Instability
- Storage Problems
- Supply to Match Demand Problems Nationally
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First and foremost the UK has several grids:
- The National Grid {Electricity Pylons and Infrastructure} Electricity is a Secondary Energy Medium
- The Gas Grid {Natural Gas - mostly methane, but other gases too in this "mix"} Natural GAS is a Primary Energy Source
- The Aviation Fuel and Oil Pipelines {as Refined Primary Energy Sources}
- Fibre Backbone - Communication and Control {including some of the above}
"National Gas Transmission is the backbone of Britain’s energy system today and we are working to play a leading role in the transition to a clean energy future that works for every home and business. We own and operate the national gas network, delivering energy to where it is needed in every part of the country."
"Gas is currently a critical part of Britain's energy needs. We keep households warm and underpin their quality of life. For business, we fuel growth and innovation, and we are looking to the future by developing the hydrogen transmission system of tomorrow." {more about the problems with Hydrogen Transmission - at the expense of Natural Gas - later}
But the Electricity Grid has a large % of electricity provided by the GAS GRID!
- "More clean energy for all: The Great Grid Upgrade will enable the electricity grid to carry more clean energy to communities in every part of England and Wales, helping us all reach net zero faster."
- "A grid that's fit for the future: As we continue to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and increase clean energy generation, we’ll be using more electricity than ever. That means we’ll need a grid that’s able to carry all this extra electricity to wherever we might need it."
These are great marketing "messages" {or social massages} but not everything here makes logical sense! Now that "fossil fuels" have been discovered on Titan!
"Saturn's moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than ALL THE KNOWN OIL AND NATURAL GAS RESERVES ON EARTH, according to new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft." Source NASA 2008 So can we all dispense with the misnomer "Fossil Fuels" now?
So here lies the nub of the problem; DISINFORMATION - and predominantly from Governments and many agenda driven agencies.
So we need a coherent and INCLUSIVE energy strategy;
that includes generation/production/discovery {of primary energy}, distribution, Delivery and Efficient Technologies!
First Major Issue is the INEFFICIENCY of our {Mainly} CENTRALISED POWER GENERATION SYSTEM.
See previous articles to understand where the energy 'liberated' at the {traditional Power Station {Gas, Oil, Coal} Net Zero; EV Infrastructure Needs; Live Generation Mix - {this needs to be viewed at various times of the day & night}; AT BEST ONLY 35-40% of the Heat energy from Gas. oil or coal is used the generate ELECTRICITY {similar to the USA too}
So Centralised Power Generation is INEFFICIENT - therefore Expanding the Electricity Grid need to be considered within this context. So National Grid powered EVs and Heat Pumps can never be considered efficient and comparable with other sources of DECENTRALISED ENERGY GENERATION. Indeed many more householders must turn towards their own "Off-GRID" energy provision {Solar Thermal Panels, Solar PV Panels, Small Scale Wind {VAWT} and even Mini/Micro Hydro where applicable.
But the fakery of the current messages - and artificially inflated energy prices to the consumer must be challenged. We are all being taken as fools! The false gods of Climate change, CO2 reductions, 'Carbon Capture', Net Zero, Climate Emergency, Fossil Fuels and Just Stop must be cast out {of the church of logic}!! All this is simply {false} marketing-hype! in fact the cynicism is so bad, that they have truncated CO2 [Carbon Dioxide] to simply "Carbon" - which is you and I - is this a cull of the Human Race??.
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Further "interviews" with ChatGPT the {claimed} "AI" resource; a series of questions are needed to get to the issues, like any interview.
ZES/SEE Interviewer Questions, commentary and/or reaction to ChatGPT replies
"Is google search banning websites or pages? Is google search also filtering access to websites or platforms which do not subscribe to the climate emergency agenda?"
ChatGPT Replied
As of my last knowledge update in September 2021, Google Search does not ban websites or pages based on their stance on the climate emergency or any particular agenda. Google Search primarily ranks web pages based on their relevance and the quality of their content, using algorithms designed to provide users with the most useful and informative search results.
Google does have policies regarding the removal of websites or pages that violate its guidelines, such as those involving illegal content, malware, or other forms of harmful or deceptive content. However, these guidelines do not include filtering or banning websites or pages based on their views on specific political or environmental issues, including the climate emergency.
It's important to note that search engine algorithms can change over time, and Google's policies may have evolved since my last update. For the most up-to-date information on Google's search policies and practices, I recommend checking Google's official documentation or news from reputable sources.
ZES/SEE Interviewer Questions, commentray and/or reaction to ChatGPT replies
"Such a pity you can only confirm your answer as at September 2021 - 2 years ago!"
ChatGPT Replied
I understand your concern about the knowledge cut-off date, and I apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. My training data only goes up until September 2021, so I can provide information based on that knowledge. However, I encourage you to verify the most current information by checking Google's official statements, policies, and recent news updates, as the internet landscape and policies can change over time. If you have any specific questions or need information on a different topic, please feel free to ask, and I'll do my best to provide useful answers.
ZES/SEE Interviewer Questions, commentary and/or reaction to ChatGPT replies
"In the United Kingdom and given the policy to ban ICE vehicles and replace them with EV by 2030 or 2035, how is the UK Electricity generation, supply and local distribution going to cope with the massive demand. Given also the move from gas heating to Electric Heat Pump over the same period, what will the Central Generators have to target between now than then to meet this increased power demand?"
ChatGPT Replied
The United Kingdom's transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs) and the shift from gas heating to electric heat pumps will indeed lead to increased demand on the electricity generation, supply, and distribution infrastructure. To meet this increased power demand and ensure a smooth transition, several key strategies and targets have been put in place:
- Renewable Energy Expansion: The UK government has set ambitious targets to increase the share of renewable energy in the electricity generation mix. This includes expanding wind power, solar power, and other forms of renewable energy. Offshore wind farms, in particular, are expected to play a significant role in meeting the increased demand for electricity.
- Nuclear Energy: Nuclear power also remains a part of the UK's energy strategy. While some older nuclear plants are being decommissioned, new ones are planned to help provide a stable source of low-carbon electricity.
- Grid Infrastructure: Upgrading and expanding the electricity grid infrastructure is crucial to accommodate the increased demand and to ensure that power generated from renewable sources can be efficiently distributed to where it's needed. This includes the development of smart grids and grid-scale energy storage solutions.
- Electricity Storage: The UK is investing in energy storage technologies such as batteries to store excess electricity generated during periods of high renewable output and release it when demand is high. This helps to stabilize the grid and ensure a continuous power supply.
- Demand-Side Management: Encouraging demand-side management practices, such as time-of-use pricing and incentives for EV owners to charge during off-peak hours, can help balance electricity demand and reduce the need for additional capacity.
- Efficiency Measures: Implementing energy efficiency measures in homes and businesses, including the installation of more energy-efficient appliances and buildings, can help reduce overall electricity consumption.
- Research and Innovation: Continued research and innovation in energy technology are essential for finding more efficient and sustainable ways to generate and use electricity.
The exact targets and strategies may vary over time and can depend on government policies and market developments. The transition to electric vehicles and electric heating is a significant undertaking, and careful planning is required to ensure a reliable and sustainable electricity supply throughout this transition.
It's worth noting that meeting these targets will require collaboration between the government, energy companies, and consumers to achieve a successful transition to a low-carbon, high-electricity-demand future. Additionally, periodic reviews and adjustments to energy policies and infrastructure plans will likely be necessary to address evolving challenges and opportunities.