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Simultaneaous faults caused england power out { August 29 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3190405.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3190405.stm Published: 2003/08/29 10:23:26 GMT Last Updated: Friday, 29 August, 2003, 10:23 GMT 11:23 UK Simultaneous faults caused power cut The blackout in London was caused by two faults in quick succession on the National Grid. Describing it as an "extremely rare event", the grid's chief operating officer said power had been restored within 40 minutes. "We had an equipment failure in our system in south east London and that was followed in a matter of seconds by a second fault which caused the power cut," Mark Fairbairn told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "We have been undertaking a full technical investigation as to the background of the faults. That is still in progress." Electrical engineer Dr Tim Green, of Imperial College, London, said it "looks like an unfortunate chain of events that will take some time to unravel". We put in place all these structures that if in the event of a terrorist attack...and suddenly find that the system can't cope with normal demand Ken Livingstone London Mayor "To be fair to the National Grid, they do put a lot of effort into planning their system and ensuring they have reserve capacity," he told BBC One's Breakfast programme. "The UK has a pretty secure network on the whole." But officials were facing uncomfortable questions on Friday about why there is no back up for the system. Until a year ago, London Underground had an independent power station at Lots Road in west London. It was switched off and the Tube network linked into the National Grid in a move which London Mayor Ken Livingstone blamed on cost-cutting. He said there could have been "horrifying consequences" if the faults had occurred during the very hot spell a few weeks ago, with many people hospitalised. Mr Fairbairn denied a lack of investment was to blame. Safety lights Power supply to the Tube is the responsibility of Seeboard Powerlink, a private consortium. It took over under the government's private finance initiative in 1998. A spokesman for London Underground acknowledged that had a similar power cut in the National Grid happened when it still had an independent generator, Thursday's network breakdown would not have happened. A small back up generator at Greenwich which is designed to power safety lights in trains and stations in the event of a total power failure, was not needed on Thursday because power was diverted from other parts of the system. New York Meanwhile comparisons were being drawn with the catastrophic power failure which affected large swathes of north America and Canada two weeks ago. Dr Green said: "There are two reasons why you might get a power cut. "One is a mismatch between supply and demand and some of the talk in America was that that might have been at the bottom of the problem there. "If you don't have enough supply in a system then you can go into a dramatic collapse. "I think this looks more like an equipment failure."

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