BBC reports that the Greenwich standby generator is "designed to power
safety lights in trains and stations".

The Times said something similar this morning. It seems we may have
been
seriously misled about the capability of the Greenwich power station.
All
this stuff about LU's legal obligation to have a second power supply.
Not
much good if it can't run the trains.

Why not spit the trains up into groups so only a hand full would be moving
at
a time in a power cut? So group 1 gets the go ahead to move to the next
station
at 25% speed then when they all check in group 2 and so on to keep the
loads
on secondary power down.

Or real low-tech solution:

1) On power cut all trains turn power to zero. Wait for return of power.
2) Each n minutes following return of power roll a die.
3) If you roll a 6, move at low power into next station.

Would produce a phased increase in load.

Or if total load is an issue when trying to maintain services, simply slow
the timetable and require all units to run at a sufficiently low power
setting. This would surely reduce total power consumption by 50%, even if
it tripled journey times?

Richard