In spring 2025, various major electrical substation security incidents in London highlighted substations as a vulnerability to all national security around the globe.
On May 12, 2025, as part of fault on the transmission network a cable fault has caused a fire at a substation in London followed by a massive power cut which brought parts of the Tube and the Elizabeth line to a standstill. The malfunction also caused a blaze at an electrical substation in the Cunningham Place and Aberdeen Place area in Maida Vale, southwest of St John‘s Wood, London. This fire is understood to have involved different equipment to the blaze on April 29 at the same electrical substation.
Source: https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/transport/cable-fault-causes-london-underground-disruption-and-fire/
On April 29, 2025 there was a fire at an electrical substation on Aberdeen Place in Maida Vale, southwest of St John‘s Wood, London. An electrical transformer that was alight – a flat in another building was also partially damaged. Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said: “Due to the fire involving a high-profile piece of infrastructure that was affecting nearby residential buildings, a major incident was declared by London Fire Brigade at 08:26.“ The Brigade was called at 05:29 and the incident was brought under control by 12:14.
Details: https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/incidents/2025/april/electrical-substation-fire-westminster/
UK Power Networks said the cause of the fire was a “fault on a piece of equipment” in its substation.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2wvz4pjryo
On the night of March 20, 2025, a fire at the North Hyde 275kV electrical substation, about 1.5 miles from Heathrow in west London, seriously disrupted the area’s power supply, including that of Heathrow Airport, the busiest airport in Europe and second biggest airport in the world. At least one of the substations transformers and various surrounding assets and components burned down.
About 67,000 homes and businesses in the area including Heathrow Airport were cut off overnight as a result of this issue. The airport closure has caused chaos, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. More than 1,300 flights have been affected – bout 120 of these were already in the air. This incident caused commercial damage running into millions.
As in many countries, the UK power grid is generally old or outdated, with many of its components and electrical assets at the end of their anticipated service lifetime.
The closure of one of the world’s largest airports due to a failure of just one electricity substation underlines how important it is that critical national energy infrastructure – substations, pylons, overhead power lines and so on – keeps functioning and are automatically monitored 24/7.
This is only becoming more important as demand for electricity increases, as transport and domestic heating is switched to electrified alternatives – notably electric cars and heat pumps.
To help protect grid assets we have developed the AI Energy Asset Inspection PowerBrains™ software for local substation monitoring automation. It increases substation resilience and security by automatically monitoring energy assets 24/7 and alarming as soon as anomalies occur. Using optical and thermal cameras, our system monitors assets and their surroundings, detecting heat anomalies, structural defects, corrosion, as well as various potential threats such as intruders, animals or sabotage.
Our AI Energy Asset Inspection PowerBrains™ are Internet independent and seamlessly integrate with existing substation infrastructure and SCADA systems. They can be deployed, AI trained and commissioned within weeks, offering rapid protection against risks, add predictive maintenance capabilities and early warnings, enhance transformer security, prevent critical incidents, and strengthen infrastructure resilience and national security.
We are eager to collaborate with Network Operators, utilities, DNOs/DSOs, TNOs and asset management and security teams to safeguard your energy assets and grid operations.
Don’t hesitate reaching out to us.
