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Government Agency: If 9 Substations Are Destroyed, The Power Grid Could Be Down For 18 Months
The Economic Collapse blog ^ | March 18, 2014 | Michael Snyder

Posted on 04/08/2014 1:24:58 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

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To: Cboldt
It's always amazing to me for guys like this writer to not understand the grid. While the assets of the electric power grid are in need of upgrades, the grid is truly one of the most incredible engineering feats in the history of man. While some point to the blackout in the Northeast, they fail to point out that an operator saw what was happening and hit the 'disconnect' switch stopping the cascade or that, if the switch hadn't been thrown the interconnects may have caused it to continue to roll, but, many of the legs of the grid could have recovered quickly.

Granted, trying to understand ISO's, RTO's and the various aspects of the electric power industry is tough, if one is going to write about it, I would hope they would read and learn about it first.

And, I am NOT saying, by any stretch, the grid is immune from hackers, sabotage or terrorist activities. But, does anyone know where they get their power from?

21 posted on 04/08/2014 4:50:23 AM PDT by Solson (The Voters stole the election! And the establishment wants it back.)
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To: Covenantor

Baby, it’s cold outside,,,


22 posted on 04/08/2014 4:53:13 AM PDT by Big Red Badger ( - William Diamonds Drum - can You Hear it G man?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
This reminds me of the time before I retired from a large automotive company that all management was required to develop a "disaster recovery plan". We were required to watch a video of a "disaster". In the video, a cleaning crew dumped an ashtray (remember those) into a wastebasket. A smoldering ash lit papers in the basket. Smoke detectors turned on sprinklers, and the entire high rise building was doused in water. It took the company in the video nine months to recover.

Not long after that, a tornado completely destroyed a tire plant that produced 30 percent of the tire production capacity of the company I worked for. It's not easy to find production capacity of specific sizes of tires for millions of tires per year. Friends of mine were responsible for this. It took them a whole week to find alternative sources. No auto production plant was even shut down. They did work very hard that week.

I vote for weeks, not years, to deal with "destroyed" substations. There are alternatives other than sitting around for two years waiting for China to build transformers.

23 posted on 04/08/2014 5:14:43 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (for)
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To: Covenantor
Although I don't count the mom & pop convenience stores as "groceries" I agree with your points.

Urban "groceries" of all stripes would be stripped of food in a matter of hours.

24 posted on 04/08/2014 5:17:26 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Cruz/Palin 2016)
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To: norwaypinesavage

I would not want to live near a large urban area that was without power for months or even weeks.


25 posted on 04/08/2014 5:35:54 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Cruz/Palin 2016)
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To: abclily
What is going to power your generator?

A wood gas generator can run a generator, if you know how to build and operate it.

FEMA even had a brochure on how to build them, once upon a time.

I've actually built and used one, so I know how to make it work.

/johnny

26 posted on 04/08/2014 5:51:36 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Former Proud Canadian

Taking out nine substations doesn’t take out electrical production capacity. It makes it more difficult to equalize generators with users. It could lead to rolling blackouts, brownouts, manual equalization efforts, and things like that. A complete shutdown of all electrical generation in the US for a year and a half simply wouldn’t happen. These stories are fear mongering, not legitimate disaster planning.


27 posted on 04/08/2014 5:56:18 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (for)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Good job. Keep publishing these things til the muslims figure it out!

And we wonder why they bad things happen here...


28 posted on 04/08/2014 6:05:07 AM PDT by joethedrummer
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To: F15Eagle

Well, that’s what the conspiracy theory is.


29 posted on 04/08/2014 6:20:44 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (If you want to keep your dignity, you can keep it. Period........ Just kidding, you can't keep it.)
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To: appalachian_dweller; OldPossum; DuncanWaring; VirginiaMom; CodeToad; goosie; kalee; ...

Preppers’ PING!!

Hat tip to Whenifhow for the heads up!


30 posted on 04/08/2014 6:28:24 AM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

You wouldn’t need to take out all 9 to bring the country to it’s knees.

Just take out 1 or 2 in the most populated areas and 10’s of millions of people would flee to the unaffected areas.

There is no way the unaffected areas could absorb that massive number of people.

The unaffected areas would have to be placed under martial law to handle it.

This was the Russians idea during the Cuban missile crisis.


31 posted on 04/08/2014 6:38:09 AM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; All

It will take longer than that. Power lines will need to be replaced [from the riots that occurred] in addition to all of the carnage from the aftermath of this event. I am willing to bet it would take years to repair, including our society.


32 posted on 04/08/2014 6:39:37 AM PDT by TMSuchman (John 15;13 & Exodus 21:22-25 Pacem Bello Pastoribus Canes [shepard of peace,dogs of war])
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Bump for later


33 posted on 04/08/2014 6:41:22 AM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
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To: Solson
-- It's always amazing to me for guys like this writer to not understand the grid. --

In his defense, he's riffing off a government agency's contention. I get a sense the government agency is attempting to justify the use of "more government" to resolve a problem that doesn't exist, in fact. But, if the problem is made to sound scary enough, the people will be stampeded into demanding action/help.

34 posted on 04/08/2014 6:41:24 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: harpu

“Duhhhhh...and this is made public knowledge, because?!?”

There is absolutely nothing secret about it and people need to know in order to prepare for the possibility.


35 posted on 04/08/2014 6:42:42 AM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: norwaypinesavage
How many substations would it take to shutdown electrical generation in the US?

/johnny

36 posted on 04/08/2014 6:46:33 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: norwaypinesavage

Thanks for the good news.


37 posted on 04/08/2014 7:19:12 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Cruz/Palin 2016)
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To: Cboldt

Very valid point.


38 posted on 04/08/2014 7:38:55 AM PDT by Solson (The Voters stole the election! And the establishment wants it back.)
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To: Covenantor
Everyone has their own priorities.


39 posted on 04/08/2014 7:45:13 AM PDT by McGruff (Want to hurt Mozilla? Don't use Firefox's search bar. That is their money maker.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The “national” grid needs to be configured so that there are AC-DC-AC boundaries with trip-trigger at the state boundaries for any power line that crosses the state line.

In the event of a massive power surge, this will work to isolate the pulse to state boundaries.


40 posted on 04/08/2014 7:51:47 AM PDT by taxcontrol
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