A huge power cut that brought disruption to hundreds of thousands of people as the working week came to an end involved Grimsby’s newest wind farm suddenly dropping off the grid.
Power from Hornsea One, which has unofficially taken the title as the world’s largest in recent weeks, fell off the 海角视频 network just before 5pm. It was one of at least two generators lost in as yet unexplained circumstances, with Little Barford gas-fired station in Cambridgeshire also going down, amplifying the issue.
Power surges and cuts left trains stranded and signals out in several regions, with police forced to control road junctions as chaos descended on rush hour. Airports were blacked out with stormy conditions prompting ‘apocalyptic’ descriptions.
Still being built out from Hull, with operations teams deployed from owner Orsted’s new £14 million East Coast Hub in Royal Dock, Hornsea One’s Siemens Gamesa turbines have been powered up as the work has progressed.
There are now less than 50 turbines still to be installed off the Yorkshire coast.
It was back generating at a 海角视频 record level as the evening became night, sending 848MW to the grid at 9pm.
The National Grid Electricity System Operator confirmed there had been issues with two generators, though sources close to the Danish giant’s operations said it could potentially have been more.
A spokesperson for National Grid said: "We experienced issues with two power generators causing loss of power in selected 海角视频 areas.
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"The issue is now resolved and the system has returned to normal. Anyone continuing to experience a local issue should contact their local Distribution Network Operator for assistance."
Orsted’s team were looking into the issue, when approached for a comment, with the loss of Hornsea potentially triggered by another event on the system National Grid delicately balances.
A spokesperson said: ”The 海角视频’s power network is a complex system that works together. We are currently working with the National Grid System Operator to establish the facts and sequence of events that have occurred in relation to this evening’s outages.”
It will undoubtedly prompt major investigations.
It comes as the major investor in Grimsby leads the world in rapidly ramping up renewables, with 400 jobs being created in the town.
However, in the half yearly results published earlier this week , president and chief executive Henrik Poulsen did sound a note of caution, stating how the company was "not fully satisfied with generation in the first half year where the number of outages and curtailments across the portfolio has been higher than normal". Availability of the wind farm fleet dropped two per cent over like-for-like periods.
Supply was not impacted in northern Lincolnshire, where the connection is made.
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Power is brought onshore at Horseshoe Point, skirting around North East Lincolnshire to North Killingholme, where a £25 million substation has been built to connect to the National Grid.
It isn’t the first issue with what is still a relatively fledgling technology. Humber Gateway, the E.on wind farm visible from Cleethorpes, the closest to the Humber bases, had its capability restricted by a cable fault.
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