Ciarán O’Donoghue, Newham and East London Socialist Party
Earlier this year Heathrow Airport experienced a power outage that meant the airport had to suspend operations for a day. It has now been reported that this recent power grid failure was caused by a fault that was already known to the National Grid. The fault was first reported in 2018, according to a report from The National Energy System Operator (NESO), with maintenance to fix the problem being scheduled but never completed. That’s seven years ago!
The National Grid was privatised in 1990. It has recently been under special monitoring by Ofgem, Britain’s energy regulator over its failure to maintain the energy network. The trade union Prospect has raised concerns about the way the industry and the National Grid are regulated. Prospect members have reported that important maintenance work isn’t being prioritised. This is troubling, given the recent events at Heathrow, and poses serious questions about such an event happening again. Meanwhile, the National Grid has paid out billions in dividends to shareholders since privatisation.
Privatisation is evidently a failure. The National Grid needs to be taken back into public ownership. But it needs to be under democratic workers’ control and management. This would ensure that workers’ concerns about maintenance, like the ones raised by these members of Prospect, wouldn’t be ignored in favour of sending dividends to shareholders!
