Media coverage
Even before the blackout, the UK press were anticipating a UK equivalent of theCauses
Initial reports were that there appeared to be a problem with a cable feed from the national grid in the Wimbledon area of south London. A spokesman for National Grid said it was "an unusual occurrence", but "not even vaguely on the scale of what happened in the U.S.", adding that there was a fault in the 275 kV system. Later National Grid's report revealed that the second fault, and the ultimate cause of the blackout, was the fitting of a wrongly rated part in a backup system - a Buchholz protection relay had the wrong setting; similar to fitting a 1 ampere fuse instead of a 5 ampere fuse. The first fault was a problem with a different transformer. The impression was given that this first fault was in a sense routine - about 13 such faults happen in a year. Normally it would be possible to switch the transformer that faulted first, out of the system and continue with power uninterrupted using spare capacity on the adjacent second transformer, also in Wimbledon, but in this case the switch over exposed the human error in using a part with the wrong setting on the second transformer. On 17 October it emerged that the first transformer fault was due to an oil leak, spotted some weeks before the blackout. The oil had been topped up but the leak had not been cured. National Grid's Director Of Transmission admitted to a "small backlog" of maintenance checks.Effects
The London Fire Brigade took around 400 calls and made hundreds of rescues for people stuck in lifts. All main rail services were at a standstill in south London and the south-east. Sixty percent of theSee also
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Further reading
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:2003 London Blackout Blackout London Blackout, 2003 London blackout London blackout, 2003 National Grid (Great Britain) London blackout, 2003