Italiano
Power cuts can bring cities to a standstill, disrupt critical infrastructure, and expose vulnerabilities in systems we rely on every day. At the 2025 Onshore Energy Conference (OEC), Hawkins Electrical Engineer Ben Lister delivered a presentation on the causes and consequences of recent high-profile power failures, and what they mean for insurers and operators.
Ben’s presentation, “Power Cuts: High Profile Failures”, examined three major incidents:
- The UK Grid Collapse (2019), where frequency instability led to cascading failures and widespread disruption.
- The Iberian Blackout (April 2025), triggered by grid oscillations and voltage control issues, resulting in the loss of nearly 19,000 MW of generation
- The Heathrow Airport outage (March 2025), caused by a substation fire and deferred maintenance, which shut down critical airport systems and highlighted the risks of ageing infrastructure.
Ben explained the technical mechanisms behind each event, such as frequency control, reactive power management, and system inertia. He also discussed how these failures impact insurance claims, liability assessments, and resilience planning.
Ben was joined at the conference by fellow Hawkins experts; Ben Adams, Louisa Laing, Dr Amir Hajdaei, Michael Chandler and Nick Wright.
If you’d like to learn more about Hawkins’ work in power and energy investigations, or speak to one of our experts, please get in touch.
