UK power cut: What happened, why it was so bad and who is to blame for outage that left 1 million in the dark?
The IndependentGet the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Around 300,000 UK Power Networks customers were affected in London and the south east, and Western Power Distribution said around 500,000 people were affected in the Midlands, south west and Wales. The “incredibly rare event” appears to have been triggered after two power stations disconnected from the grid “near simultaneously”, said a senior official at National Grid, which owns the electricity transmission system in England and Wales. He also dismissed suggestions a failure linked to wind power was responsible for the power cut, saying it had “nothing” to do with changes in wind speed or the variability of wind. If that were the case there’d be reduction across many wind farms in same area.” However, questions were raised over why the system had cut power to sensitive areas like hospitals and airports.
History of this topic
Will Britain suffer a power outage? Freezing weather brought UK ‘within a whisker’ of blackout
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Power cut hits parts of London as internet and traffic lights go down
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Power due to be restored to ‘vast majority’ of homes affected by storms
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Storm sets new wind power record
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Back-to-back storms leave thousands without power
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Ministers offer support to thousands still without power after Storm Arwen
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Three firms to pay £10.5m over August power cuts
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Experts blame UK's over-reliance on wind energy on worst power cut in years
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UK power cut: Wind generation not to blame for outage that hit one million, National Grid boss says
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UK power cut: Energy watchdog Ofgem demands answers after major outage causes travel chaos
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UK power cuts: Almost a million customers left without electricity as massive National Grid failure causes travel chaos
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UK power cuts live updates: Major outages across country hits trains, ports and traffic lights, follow the latest
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Social media is flooded with hilarious memes as the lights go out across the country
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British Airways system outage 'caused by IT worker accidentally switching off power supply’
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Hackers cause a power cut for the first time, say researchers
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UK Power Networks offers to pay for Christmas dinner after supplies cut off
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