London’s £10bn data centre boom accelerates amid AI power crunch Tech London’s data centre sector is entering a new phase of expansion, with three major schemes worth over £10bn revealed in the past week. The projects, all located in and around the capital, aim to serve the growing computing needs of the City, tech firms, and the broader UK economy, particularly AI workloads. The developments are [...]
UK’s AI vision faces infrastructure reality check Tech The UK government has set ambitions to become a global leader in AI research, safety and commercialisation. Over £2.5bn has been committed to compute infrastructure, with new supercomputers being built in Edinburgh and Bristol, and “AI Growth Zones” being launched across regions including Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. But a growing chorus of voices [...]
Does anyone come out clean from Heathrow Airport power outage? Aviation Who comes out clean from the chaos that engulfed Heathrow Airport in March? Today’s revelations from the NESO report were damning for National Grid, the operator of the North Hyde substation that burst into flames, leading to a 16-hour power outage at the UK’s biggest airport. There had been back and forth for weeks between [...]
Heathrow: Fault that caused power outage was ignored for seven years July 2, 2025 Heathrow has said it is considering legal action against National Grid after it was revealed that a “catastrophic failure” of equipment led to the substation fire which caused a huge power outage at the airport earlier this year. A damning report into the incident found the UK’s electricity operator had failed to address excessively high [...]
Ofgem gives green light to landmark electric grid upgrade July 1, 2025 The UK’s energy regulator has approved a £24bn investment to upgrade the UK’s energy infrastructure as a part of its green transition. The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) move comes as the government renews its push for cleaner energy, despite backlash around the impact on prices. Over £15bn is set to be deployed [...]
London Tech Week: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Keir Starmer unveil AI push June 9, 2025 Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and Keir Starmer unveiled a major AI push at London Tech Week this morning. The two figureheads have unveiled a range of changes to boost Britain’s AI infrastructure, research and industrial capacity, to help the UK become an “AI maker, not an AI taker.” US chip maker Nvidia, a leading player [...]
Heathrow ‘responded well’ to power outage despite sleeping CEO, report says May 28, 2025 Heathrow Airport “responded well” to the power outage incident in March despite its chief executive sleeping through a key decision on whether to stop operations, an internal review, commissioned by the airport, found. More than 200,000 passengers around the world faced disruption as Heathrow opted to stop operations following a fire at the nearby North [...]
Hercules PLC: Powering Britain’s infrastructure ambitions May 21, 2025 The UK stands on the cusp of an unprecedented infrastructure revolution. With governmental commitments indicating significant investment (plans previously cited at £700bn-£750bn), the nation is poised to transform its transport networks, energy systems, and digital infrastructure. This undertaking will not only require capital but also a large, skilled workforce that can adapt to the nation’s [...]
National Grid profit jumps by a fifth despite record investment May 15, 2025 National Grid’s annual profits rose by a fifth as it lauded stable growth against a backdrop of “international economic uncertainty.” On an underlying basis, pre-tax profit increased 20 per cent to £3.7bn over the 12 months ended 31 March. Earnings per share rose two per cent to 73.3p, ahead of previous guidance. National Grid announced [...]
Power restored to Heathrow terminals seven hours before flights resumed May 8, 2025 Power was restored to Heathrow airport’s terminals seven hours before flights resumed on the day it was closed because of a substation fire, an investigation has found. An interim report by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) found the flow of electricity to all four of the west London airport’s passenger terminals was restarted by [...]