u missed the one that matters.... NO ODT
American Blackout....
- Thread starter jcountry
- Start date
u missed the one that matters.... NO ODT
u mean the ones that can't do anything for them selves besides make a good spread sheet? They will be just as dependant as all the rest that can't do anything for themselves. Let's call them the "soft" class
I am not any kind of power expert. But whether they are in the substation or the plant, a 6 month to a year backlog don't seem like a very good thing if more than a few pop.
At any rate, I have read a few places that large transformers are a real problem.
Here are a couple of good articles about what some adversarial govts have been up to:
http://news.techeye.net/security/chinese-hackers-have-control-of-us-power-grid
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/09/...r-intrusion-at-energy-industry-giant-telvent/
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lol
I'm a liscensed electrician. I don't deal with that side of the business however. Taking out a substation or twenty will not take down the system. Taking out a generation plant or two on the other hand...
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There are a fair number of transformers and other critical parts stored here in the US, but they are definitely scaled to 'regional' disasters. No company is going to keep backups for 100% of it's critical infrastructure just sitting in a warehouse, the local regulators would rake them over the coals at the next rate hearing.
If we had a national problem, it could easily be months before all the grid came back. Current protocols would have any sub-grid with hospitals or other 'critical' infrastructure come up first, but that still wouldn't guarantee that everyone in a particular area would get their juice back.
These days they can remotely shut down individual meters if they need to. You can bet residential would be last on the list, and that could take months even with factories in the US and overseas running 110% to replace equipment.
And, as mentioned above, we can't forget the 'digital' side.
Anything that fried transformers would also take out grid monitoring & control (SCADA) as well as plant control systems. These systems aren't 'hardened' in any way, shape or form. In fact they are often just regular old (and I do mean OLD) desktops running obsolete operating systems (can't count how many Windows 2000-based systems I've seen still in use)
These are specialized systems that are semi-custom to each plant, company, grid, or operator. They tend to be installed and supported by small, 'boutique' companies that wouldn't have the labor force to even physically do a mass-replacement, let alone the fine tuning required for each system.
It took about 3 weeks for the power to be restored fully after Katrina, and that was a very local event. If we had a truly national event that destroyed a large part of the underlying infrastructure, I don't think 3-6 months would really be that much of a stretch.
WOOT! And that's #1,000! Nothing like hitting a milestone on such a gloomy note...
If we had a national problem, it could easily be months before all the grid came back. Current protocols would have any sub-grid with hospitals or other 'critical' infrastructure come up first, but that still wouldn't guarantee that everyone in a particular area would get their juice back.
These days they can remotely shut down individual meters if they need to. You can bet residential would be last on the list, and that could take months even with factories in the US and overseas running 110% to replace equipment.
And, as mentioned above, we can't forget the 'digital' side.
Anything that fried transformers would also take out grid monitoring & control (SCADA) as well as plant control systems. These systems aren't 'hardened' in any way, shape or form. In fact they are often just regular old (and I do mean OLD) desktops running obsolete operating systems (can't count how many Windows 2000-based systems I've seen still in use)
These are specialized systems that are semi-custom to each plant, company, grid, or operator. They tend to be installed and supported by small, 'boutique' companies that wouldn't have the labor force to even physically do a mass-replacement, let alone the fine tuning required for each system.
It took about 3 weeks for the power to be restored fully after Katrina, and that was a very local event. If we had a truly national event that destroyed a large part of the underlying infrastructure, I don't think 3-6 months would really be that much of a stretch.
WOOT! And that's #1,000! Nothing like hitting a milestone on such a gloomy note...
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we shall see soon enough
http://thecommonsenseshow.com/2013/09/07/when-the-lights-go-out-on-november-13-2013/
http://thecommonsenseshow.com/2013/09/07/when-the-lights-go-out-on-november-13-2013/
It's worthy of note that Katrina took out miles of power lines and poles. When you consider that aspect three weeks is a pretty darn good turn-around...
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