>Ummmm... There is no way to defend against EMP without completely rebuilding everything with military grade shielding and even then the power grid will still go down for months.
It’s worth doing. If not an EMP then a major solar flair would cause the same problem and we had one about 150 years ago. Another could happen at anytime.
Erm, you don’t understand - the only question is just how much you end up having to replace. The shielding would be for the control computers - the transformers and other gear would all be dead and require replacement with new production even if you used military grade shielding. Anything directly attached to transmission lines is gone in an EMP event - there is no economical way to shield those on a national scale.
A solar flare is probably more likely. There was one that hit the earth in the 1840s or early 1850s. It caused sparking on telegraph poles and I think I read that it injured some operators. Something like that hit the earth again and at best its zoot suits & Tommy Dorsey for all!
Also, it’s a lot less of an issue than you’d think as 99% of things connected to the grid would also be dead and need to be replaced.
Basically, it’s not really possible or sensible to harden the entire national grid against a wide-scale EMP attack and it doesn’t matter anyway because relatively nobody will have working electronics or electrics to consume power after that anyway.
And I say that as someone who has spares for all the critical electronics in shielded boxes in case of a large flare or EMP.