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Grid infrastructureUnited KingdomEIR-2516

Substation explosion cuts power to 22,000 homes in Yorkshire

2018Published 22 Oct 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor

SignificantElectricalProvisionalNext update 22 Oct
Estimated damageEstimated by the register's adjusterHow? Know the real figure?
Figure hidden: shown to subscribersLow confidence
supply cut for about •• daysShown in the record →Full estimate
From the recordRoot cause hiddenFailed part hidden

What happened

An explosion at a substation in Saltburn, Yorkshire, cut electricity supply to around 22,000 homes, according to a Sky News report published on 6 March 2018. Only the headline and a short summary of the report were available when this entry was drafted, because the full article could not be retrieved. The available text does not give the time of the explosion, the equipment involved, the cause of the fault, whether anyone was hurt, or how long supplies were off before they were restored.

The incident date is not stated in the available text, so it is left blank rather than assumed to match the publication date. Operational details beyond the headline should be treated as unverified until the full report or a network operator statement is checked.

Contributing factors

Not reported in the available text.

Lessons learned

  1. A single substation explosion can disconnect tens of thousands of households, so operators should assess how many customers depend on each substation and plan for their loss.
  2. Operators should keep fault records, isolation procedures and restoration plans current so that supplies can be re-routed quickly after a failure.
  3. Operators should agree in advance how they will communicate the cause, the number of customers affected and the expected restoration time, so that early public statements are accurate and do not add to confusion during an outage.

More lessons on outages, backup supply and restoration, worker safety and safe systems of work, from every incident on the register.

Source

Sky News (news.sky.com)

Published 2026-10-22. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.

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Chart to reuse with this story: Grid infrastructure incidents in the United Kingdom, by year, free with a credit (PNG).

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