The scope of the investigation into the huge power cut that affected a million people as last week came to a close has been set out by government.
Andrea Leadsom, Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has commissioned the Energy Emergencies Executive Committee to review of the incident, and recommend ways to avoid a repeat.
The electricity provided by Hornsea One offshore wind farm and Little Barford gas-fired power station dropped off the grid within seconds just before 5pm on Friday .
It reduced the frequency across the entire country, beyond the back-up level, bringing forward an automated strategic shut down of demand - leading to Newcastle's airport and Ipswich's hospital being blacked out, with trains halted, causing huge issues in the capital.
A statement released by BEIS said: “On Friday, August 9 a power disruption resulted from the operation of Low Frequency Demand Disconnection relays on the GB Power System at approximately 4:54pm, impacting hundreds of thousands of customers, and causing significant secondary impacts in particular to the transport network.
“Though demand was fully restored within 90 minutes, secondary impacts continued to be felt for much of the day. The Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has therefore commissioned the Energy Emergencies Executive Committee (E3C) to undertake a comprehensive review of the incident, to identify lessons and recommendations for the prevention, and management of future power disruption events.”
The review will take in the National Grid Electricity System Operator, transmission and distribution network operators, and generators - with Orsted and RWE behind the two involved.
Hornsea One is the largest offshore wind farm in the world, already generating as the build out is completed, with operations and maintenance anchored in Grimsby.
Most Read
Electricity comes ashore at Horseshoe Point, skirting the town to an onshore substation at North Killingholme, where it connects to the grid. Hornsea Two's electrical infrastructure is also being completed now, following the same route.
Little Barford, in Bedfordshire, is a 727MW plant, feeding direct to the grid. A spokesperson for RWE has confirmed there was a technical fault on the facility, adding it was back online at 9pm.
It was built on the site of a former coal plant - a common strategy due to grid connection infrastructure - that had been closed in the late Eighties. Commissioned 25 years ago, the infrastructure located just off the A1 near Wyboston was significantly upgraded seven years ago.
The E3C, which brings together electricity and gas supply industry, regulators, Ofgem and others, will now:
- Assess direct and secondary impacts of the event across GB electricity networks
- Identify areas of good practice and where improvements are required for system resilience
- Consider load shedding in regard to essential service customers and prioritisation
- Consider timeliness and content of public communications during the incident
- Make recommendations for essential service resilience to power disruptions
The statement said E3C “will not consider whether participants correctly met their responsibilities under the licensing regime and Grid Code” as this will be considered separately by Ofgem in delivery of their responsibilities as the independent regulator.
“Any information identified by E3C that will be of value to Ofgem will be shared by BEIS”, it added.
A final report will be submitted to the Secretary of State within three months, with an interim report within five weeks.
Don’t miss
It will include an assessment of the event, recommendations and lessons for the future, and an implementation plan for those.
National Grid ESO has already welcomed the review into the incident, the first in a decade. It said: “We are conducting a thorough internal investigation and will report our interim findings in detail to Ofgem by the end of this week. We can and must learn lessons from Friday’s events – however rare their occurrence – as National Grid and as an energy industry.”