Recent power outages at Heathrow Airport and Forth Valley Royal Hospital have exposed vulnerabilities in the resilience of critical infrastructure and highlighted key areas for improvement.

Power outage at Heathrow Airport

On March 1, 2025, a fire at the North Hyde power station near Heathrow Airport caused a widespread power outage, leading to the cancellation of more than 1,300 flights and affecting approximately 300,000 passengers. Despite the presence of backup generators, the outage was so severe that it stopped the regular operation of the busiest European airport. The incident prompted the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to review resilience regulations and consider introducing incentives for Heathrow to invest in operational improvements and ensure a high quality of service.

Power outage at Forth Valley Royal Hospital

In January 2025, Storm Eowyn caused widespread power cuts across Scotland, affecting more than 146,000 households and leading to a critical incident at Forth Valley Royal Hospital. The hospital experienced a power outage, causing a delay in switching to backup generators. That delay required the application of emergency measures, including the diversion of ambulances to other facilities. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the generator failure and improve the hospital's resilience against future power outages.

Implications for Critical Infrastructure Resilience

These events highlight several key challenges:

• Points of failure: Dependence on individual power stations but backup systems without adequate redundancy can lead to large-scale disruptions if a failure occurs.
• Interconnection of vulnerabilities: Errors in some part of the infrastructure can cause chain reactions, which emphasizes the need for comprehensive risk assessments and integrated planning of unforeseen situations.
• Regulatory and operational supervision: Those incidents encouraged regulatory authorities to re-examine existing resistance standards and consider measures to encourage investment in infrastructure robustness.

Addressing these issues requires a holistic approach that includes investing in redundant systems, improving coordination among stakeholders, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement in resilience planning. As pointed out by Richard G. Little (https://www.ft.com/content/df8...), achieving resilient critical systems requires a balanced integration of hardware, institutions and trained personnel to ensure reliable operation and social resilience.

Those incidents serve as a warning to organizations and authorities responsible for critical infrastructure, and emphasize the necessity of strengthening resilience strategies to reduce the impact of unforeseen events.

Both incidents prove that preparedness for similar critical incidents, based on experience with COVID-19, is crucial for future challenges. EU projects such as SUNRISE and ENDURANCE, along with other initiatives under the umbrella of the European Cluster for the Security of Critical Infrastructure (ECSCI) (https://www.finsec-project.eu/...), have contributed to improving resilience.