Power suppliers to pay $14 mln fine for UK outage in August (updated)
03/01/2020 08:22
(Updates with more detail, government action)
By Nina Chestney and Pushkala Aripaka
LONDON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Britain's energy regulator said on
Friday it has fined three electricity suppliers a total of 10.5
million pounds ($13.77 million) for a power outage last August
which affected one million customers and caused transport chaos.
The regulator, Ofgem, said Hornsea One Ltd ORSTED.CO , RWE
RWEG.DE and UK Power Networks have agreed to pay the sum for
failing to remain connected after the lightning strike that
caused the outage, and for a technical breach of rules.
On Aug. 9 last year the combined loss of two large
generators and a smaller loss of generation at a local level
together triggered a disconnection and loss of power that
disrupted supplies to more than one million consumers.
Ofgem said two large power stations - Hornsea One Ltd,
co-owned by Orsted, and Little Barford, operated by RWE - became
disconnected after a lightning strike.
They have agreed to make a voluntary payment of 4.5 million
pounds each into Ofgem’s redress fund.
Ofgem found that local network operators disconnected and
reconnected consumers in response to the loss of power as
expected.
However, UK Power Networks began reconnecting customers
without being asked to do so, which could have potentially
jeopardised recovery of the system.
Although this had no impact on Aug. 9, it is a technical
breach, and the company has agreed to pay 1.5 million pounds
into the Ofgem fund.
Ofgem's investigation has also raised questions about how
the National Grid's Electricity System Operator manages the
system.
The regulator had already announced a review into the
structure and governance of the ESO, during which it will
consider a number of options for how the system operator is
structured, governed and managed.
Also on Friday, the government said it will implement an
action plan to help prevent future power disruptions.
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That will include assessing the need for improvements to the
governance, monitoring and enforcement processes for large and
smaller generators, and reviewing the pros and cons of the ESO
holding additional back-up generation.
($1 = 0.7627 pounds)
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Jan Harvey)
((nina.chestney@thomsonreuters.com
+44 (0)207 542 8071
nina.chestney.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))