(Secretary of State for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy):On Friday 9th
August 2019, over 1 million customers were affected by a major
power disruption that occurred across England and Wales and some
parts of Scotland. The power outage was due to the loss of a mix of
generation including a gas fired power station and an offshore wind
farm.
Though the power disruption itself was relatively short lived –
all customers were restored within 45 minutes - the knock-on
impacts to other services were significant. This is especially
true for rail services which experienced major delays that
extended into Sunday 11th August. The wider disruptions were
caused by automatic safety systems under the control of
individual service providers, which reacted to frequency and
voltage fluctuations, or problems with their back-up power
supplies.
Given the severity of the incident, I commissioned the Energy
Emergency Executive Committee (E3C) to conduct a review to
identify lessons learnt and put in place a robust action plan to
improve the reliability and integrity of our power network. The
Committee’s final report was published on Friday 3rd January.
This follows the publication of their interim report on
4th October. The final report sets out 10 clear
actions and these will be implemented in full, to help prevent
and manage future power disruption events.
Alongside the E3C report, Ofgem also published the conclusions of
its own investigations into the incident. This set out a series
of cross-industry actions for maintaining the resilience of the
electricity system, as well as announcing voluntary payments
totalling £10.5 million for companies involved in the power
outages.
GB Power Disruption: E3C Lessons Learnt and Actions
Following a lightning strike on an overhead transmission line,
there was a near simultaneous generation loss at two
transmission-connection generators; and a significant number of
smaller embedded generators connected to the distribution
network.
The two transmission-connected generators experienced technical
issues near-simultaneously. Both generators have acknowledged the
role they played in the incident and since implemented technical
fixes to ensure that their systems can withstand similar
incidents in the future. The E3C will share the lessons
identified with generators across the UK.
The loss of smaller embedded generation on the day was greater
than expected. The E3C report sets out a series of actions to
assess the need for improvements to the governance, monitoring
and enforcement processes for large and smaller generators.
On the 9th August, the cumulative loss of generation exceeded the
amount of back-up generation on hold. This triggered the first
stage a demand disconnection protection system, which is the last
line of defence when the system is out of balance. This resulted
in over 1 million customers being disconnected from the network.
Given the events on the 9th August, the E3C report recommends a
review of how much back-up generation the Electricity System
Operator should be required to hold. As this is funded through
consumer bills, the review will include a cost benefit analysis
of increasing the amount of reserves.
Although the demand disconnection protection system worked
broadly as intended, the review identified some discrepancies in
its operation; therefore, the report recommends further analysis
of the schemes performance in order to develop options for short-
and long-term improvements. This includes considering whether
Distribution Network Operators should afford particular types of
customers any form of protection, especially during the early
stages of an incident.
In addition to the direct impacts of customers being disconnected
from the electricity network, wider disruptions on the day were
caused by the automatic safety systems owned and operated by
individual service providers reacting unexpectedly to the
frequency and voltage fluctuations on the electricity network; or
problems with their own back-up power supplies.
The E3C will consider what more can be done to support essential
services owners and operators with advice and guidance to put in
place more robust business continuity plans.
Effective communication is a vital part of any emergency
response. Unfortunately, industry communications on the day fell
below the standard expected, with infrequent and disjointed
updates to the general public.
The E3C will develop and roll out new communications processes to
ensure the general public receives regular updates during any
future disruptions. There will also be a review of operational
protocols to make sure they are fit for purpose.
Where appropriate, the E3C and Ofgem reports contain jointly
agreed actions and recommendations. The E3C will take the actions
set out both reports to drive forward changes across the sector.
The Committee will provide quarterly updates to my Department and
Ofgem.
The UK leads the world by working to eradicate its contribution
to climate change by 2050, the actions I have outlined here today
will form part of a wider package of work already underway across
government and industry to ensure the UK’s energy system remains
resilient as we transition to clean and affordable energy.
