National power grid down one month......Lord of the Flies?

[Eagler]

With such poor energy policies I won't be surprised if we don't cause rolling blackouts ourselves in the near future

Eagler

[Chris79]

It only takes 9 substations down to take down “the grid”

I assume you are referring to transmission interchanges.

[icepac]

Yes, “substations” is broad term.     
Stations that contain transmission transformers are “sub” to the power generating stations.

[SIM]

Only 9 substations?

Boy, I've really missed the memo in my job, either that or someone believes more than they know.

[icepac]

Nine…….carefully picked.

[SIM]

Again, some wants to believe more than they know.

[guncrasher]

the 9 is based on a paper that is 8 years old.  and it says it might not it will.

and they would have to be completely destroyed is my guess,  I don't know. I guess down to the foundation.


semp

[SIM]

Considering there are a couple of thousand electric utilities in the US most of which have substations. Destroying 9 substations to cause national outages is a stretch, a very long stretch.

Hurricanes slam substations yearly, ice storms, lightening storms, floods, and trees in all of the above.

People in general are very gullible when they don't know much about a subject.

[guncrasher]

just remember the steel company I used to work for,  the substation blew up, it was loud, I was cutting slabs, I turned around and started running, I was probably 100 yards from it. no fire just a flash and a bang. another guy was 100 feet away, he was coming down the crane to poop, he didn't need to poop anymore.

took I think 7 days to restore power. they used that incident to upgrade. but half the plant did have power next day.

we got a week off with pay. good thing the furnace did have back up power. it shut down immediately which means 4 or 5 hours. can't shut down a furnace in 30 seconds, those guys were scared

semp

[SIM]

The problem with your story, besides not knowing when you are telling the truth, are drunk, or just stupid, is that you don't know whether the steel company actually owned the substation OR if it was owned by the local power company.

Many large companies own their substations. The local utility sells them power at that point. The local power company doesn't necessarily provide maintenance to that equipment. Neither does the power company manage that equipment.

[icepac]

The previous attacks targeted the cooling systems of transmission transformers.   

Had they had bigger rifles, the transformers themselves would have needed replacement.   
That means finding one and transporting them on super wide trailers with telephone line moving and removal required because they are tall and wide. 

Do you know where most substations store spare transformers?     Right next to the working transformers.      My dad worked COG (continuation of government) and his job was assessing risk and security for power grids in the Midwest.     
He’s worried.

[guncrasher]

The problem with your story, besides not knowing when you are telling the truth, are drunk, or just stupid, is that you don't know whether the steel company actually owned the substation OR if it was owned by the local power company.

Many large companies own their substations. The local utility sells them power at that point. The local power company doesn't necessarily provide maintenance to that equipment. Neither does the power company manage that equipment.

I maybe stupid  or drunk or high but it was inside company  property, but you are right,  I don't know who owns it, but I do know it only supplies to the steel mill.

and it's a small probably 25 yards by 25 yards. maybe less. couldn't even tell you what a substation is but that's what it was called at work

semp

[SIM]

Wow, I didn't know that substations stored transformers.
What I do know is that utilities generally try to have spare equipment somewhere in their operations area. That equipment is extremely expensive! So many smaller utilities will not have the spares on hand such as larger outfits. I also know that most utilities have agreements with other companies to help each other in times where spare equipment is not readily available.

So tell me icepac, since you seem to have the assumptions, can transformers in substations be repaired on site? How can a substation cause the national grid to crumble? Can power be diverted to other circuits that allow a substation to basically be skipped?  Do you have any direct knowledge of power company operations?

I can answer each of those questions from direct experience, not from a gullible or ignorant position.

[Peanut1]

I wonder if the US strategic oil reserve will have been emptied by the time of the outage.

are you aware that the SOR is not a literal thing? It's just funds for more fuel... lol

[Eagler]

On this subject has anyone looked into solar powered generator as a viable backup?

I can't see gas generators lasting more than a week before a nice group of armed thugs takes it from you as they make way too much noise to hide

Eagler