The fire at a substation in London, which led to the closure of Heathrow Airport last Friday, impressively reveals how vulnerable critical infrastructure is and how far-reaching the consequences of a defect can be.
What seemed like a local technical problem at first glance had massive effects within a very short period of time: on air traffic, logistics, people and processes. It shows once again how interdependent our supply systems are and how quickly an accident can spread widely.
Such events make it clear that safety measures and early detection of risks are necessary, and not just in substations. This can also be decisive for smaller local network transformers in order to prevent damage and ensure grid stability.
Predictive transformer maintenance and targeted transformer monitoring make the infrastructure future-proof.
