Comical Duncan – the National Grid boss who says ‘the system worked really well’
IT WAS an outrageous statement worthy of dictator Saddam Hussein’s propaganda chief, nicknamed ‘Comical Ali’ for his laughable distortions of the truth during the Iraq War.
The day after the power went off all over Britain, causing widespread chaos, National Grid director of operations Duncan Burt yesterday insisted: ‘We think the system worked really well. What we saw was an exceptional event.’
He told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We think that the protection systems across the generators and the network worked well to secure and keep the grid safe… to make sure we preserved power for the vast majority of the country.’
He was speaking after the power cuts halted trains, shut down traffic lights and left nearly a million people without power.
Mr Burt said the ‘nearsimultaneous’ loss of two stations disconnecting was more strain that the grid could deal with, triggering automatic safety systems to shut off power to some areas.
He acknowledged the ‘immense disruption’ the blackout had caused and said the industry needed to examine if the safety systems were set up to have ‘minimal impact’ on people’s lives. He said lessons would be learnt.
Saddam’s Information Minister, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, was dubbed Comical Ali for his denial of reality during the Coalition invasion, in one instance claiming that US soldiers were committing suicide ‘by the hundreds’ just as the regime was crumbling.