Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 13, 2019 Page 27
QQQ
Hong Kong
grounded as
protests take
over airport
National Grid had 3
‘near-misses’ before
blackout hit Britain
Takeover: The arrival hall of the Hong Kong International Airport is occupied in a protest against police violence yesterdayMail Foreign ServiceALL flights in and out of Hong Kong
were cancelled yesterday after
thousands of protesters took over the
city’s airport.
The shutdown at one of the world’s
busiest hubs came as the Chinese
government called recent pro-democ-
racy demonstrations ‘terrorism’.
Around 5,000 people carrying plac-
ards and chanting slogans denouncing
police violence flooded terminal
buildings, forcing the airport to
suspend operations.
‘Other than departures that havebill with mainland China. Since then a
broader pro-democracy movement
has emerged and clashes with police
have become increasingly violent.
Hong Kong police have admitted
deploying officers disguised as anti-government protesters during mass
unrest that rocked the city on Sunday.
Some officers disguised themselves
as ‘different characters’, a spokesman
said, adding that the ‘decoy operation’
had targeted ‘violent rioters’.BRITAIN had three By Jake Hurfurt
blackout ‘near-misses’
in the three months
before last Friday’s
power cut that caused
chaos during rush hour.
National Grid is being
investigated by the energy
watchdog but the power
system operator has faced
criticism from the industry
for failing to do enough to
prevent blackouts.
The operator blamed last
week’s ‘incredibly rare’ out-
age, which left a million
homes without electricity, on
an issue with the grid’s fre-
quency following two genera-
tors going offline unexpect-
edly at about 5pm on Friday.
Ofgem will look at the
National Grid’s handling of
the energy system in the
aftermath of the major black-
out. The first in a decade, it
followed Hornsea wind farm
in the North Sea and a gas
power plant in Bedfordshire
shutting down. National Grid
said it would co-operate with
Ofgem and energy firms to
‘understand the lessonslearned’ after the shutdown
caused rush-hour chaos.
Industry figures claim that
National Grid has known of
the increasing risk of a major
outage ‘for years’ and has had
a string of near misses over
the past few months, reported
The Guardian.
Every month since May has
seen a major drop in the grid’s
frequency, which usually oper-
ates at 50Hz. On three occa-
sions, the frequency has fallen
below 49.6Hz – the most
severe drop since 2015 – with
the legal limit being 49.5Hz.
Friday’s blackout saw it
drop as far as 48.8Hz.
One near-miss in May fol-
lowed three units at an EDF-
run gas plant in Nottingham-
shire going down without
warning, with a blackout only
avoided through the use of
back-up electricity supplies.
A second incident in May
and another in July saw the
frequency almost dipping
below the legal minimum.
Ofgem has demanded a
report on the blackout by the
end of the week and a fulltechnical report by early Sep-
tember as concern over the
National Grid’s handling of
the system has grown.
Steve Shine, who heads bat-
tery company Anesco, said:
‘It would be easy for National
Grid to write this incident off
as a fluke event, but they have
actually been aware of this
potential issue for many
years.’
Duncan Burt, director of
operations at the National
Grid Electricity System Oper-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.’
The National Grid has a
number of back-up energy
contracts to allow it to stabi-
lise the grid and remain above
the 49.5Hz limit. It has deals
with power plants and energy
firms to increase electricity
output to cover any shortfall
in the event of an outage.
There are even some agree-
ments with businesses,
including factories and super-
markets, who can temporarily
reduce their energy demand
to stabilise the energy grid.
But some of the firms who
supply back-up services, such
as battery and diesel farms,
have warned not enough is
being done to protect against
future outages.
Mr Shine called for a greater
volume of back-up supplies
‘which can be called into
action when the frequency
drops. This would have pre-
vented the need to turn the
power off ’.‘Aware of this
potential issue’‘Police targeted
violent rioters’completed the check-in process and
arrivals that are already heading to
Hong Kong, all flights have been can-
celled for the rest of today,’ said a
spokesman.
The chief executive of Hong Kong-
based airline Cathay Pacific warned of
‘disciplinary consequences’ for any of
its employees involved.
Protesters first took to the streets ten
weeks ago to oppose an extraditionator, said: ‘There were no
near-misses nor early warning
signs. Rather this is a highly
unusual event, without prec-
edent in the past ten years.
‘We work with Ofgem to set
the agreed limits of frequency
of electricity output to keep
the whole system safe and the
lights on. All the time until
Friday’s events, the system
has remained within safe lim-
its. We are conducting a thor-
ough internal investigation