In article , David H Wild
writes
I've not seen anything that suggested that the second failure was a
consequence of the first.

The National Grid press release says that the second fault was "the
backup failing". So I suppose the cable that failed after 7 seconds was
already broken, but no-one had noticed. Until it came to be used.

Whether you regard that failure as something you might describe as a
"consequence" of being put into use after the first fault or not, is
merely playing with words.
--
"It used to be that what a writer did was type a bit and then stare out of the
window a bit, type a bit, stare out of the window a bit. Networked computers
make these two activities converge, because now the thing you type on and the
window you stare out of are the same thing" - Douglas Adams 28/1/99.