"It's pretty tough to kill a transformer..." But it is possible to kill one.
Posted on 03/10/2014 9:10:50 AM PDT by null and void
Transformers are the most vulnerable components in the power grid and they are under attack.
The main components in our power grid distribution system are transformers. They step up the generated voltage to a higher level for more efficient transport over very long lines. Then they step the voltage back down in several stages for final consumption. These transformers are located at the power plants and thousands of substations. They are big and right out in the open. Weather does not bother them, but bullets do. They are the weak links in our power grid.
Last year someone decided to shoot out the transformers at PG&E’s Metcalf substation in Silicon Valley taking the substation out of service. Luckily, PG&E was able to reroute the power to prevent a total blackout. But it took months to get replacement transformers and restore service.
This is a major wake up call to the utilities. Terrorists, or disgruntled customers, can easily take down a substation with a rifle at long range and get away with it. The transformers are defenseless as they are not covered or protected in any way. Furthermore, replacement transformers are hard to come by.
Power transformers are not an off-the-shelf item. Most are custom made to match the utility’s system. Each transformer is unique so requires special manufacturing efforts. It takes months to make small transformers and as many as two years for the big transformers. And they cost a fortune with small ones going for up to $1 million and as much as $10 million for the big ones. In addition, transportation is an issue. How do you ship a monster transformer weighing a couple hundred thousand pounds? So while replacements are possible, it takes a significant amount of time. This could cause a black out for months or longer.
On top of all that, there are only about seven transformer manufacturers in the U.S. And most of these are not typically that busy. Even so it would be a major problem to get fast service from a U.S. company for custom products. Not that many of them make the really big high voltage transformers. However, there are other transformer companies worldwide but service would no doubt be slow, and let’s not mention shipping costs.
Something needs to be done about this, fast. You know how you feel during even a short few hour blackout. It is miserable. Think of all the businesses, hospitals, and government services that depend upon power. It is a scary thought to think we could go without power for months. No doubt the utilities are already taking that California event as a wakeup call. I have not heard what they are doing about it. And just what can be done anyway? Special housings? Bullet proof shielding? Kevlar vests? Utilities could keep a spare or two of the smaller cheaper transformers, but it would be too costly to stock a spare of the larger ones.
Most substations are not that secure. They usually have a chain link fence and maybe even video surveillance but neither of these help when your enemy is a sniper a hundred yards away. Even armed guards are no help. It would not take much of a complex or expensive effort to really disrupt electrical service nationwide. Just ask hurricane and icy winter survivors how bad it is without power for a long time. So what is the solution?
Since the terrorists now know of this cheap and easy way to hurt us, we had better develop some protection. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to get yourself a good generator for back up.
An inductor (one coil) will change power factor, as will a capacitor. I was talking about the inability of a transformer to change an input frequency into a different output frequency.
The phase angle relationship between primary and secondary in a transformer is variable, too, by changing the nature of the load(s).
Well, that was part of my question. I did know a little about the Carrington event (CE). Thank you! I’ve enjoyed the link and others I found today by searching.
I guess the point I was trying to make was that everyone seems worried about terrorism and acts of war, but we do not know how often the Sun discharges a CME like it did back on September 1st, 1859, but it could be that it is a once a millennium, or once a century or even once a decade event, but—we’ve been fortunate enough to miss one for 150 years. In fact, as massive as the CE was (we think), we do not know if one could be even bigger.
So, hardening our infrastructure might just make sense, no matter how peaceful mankind may be at some future date.
True.
What transformers can do (and in fact, are physcially destined to do)...
I misread "destined" as designed to do...
Heh. That's a very natural mistake. Bad pick of words on my part, just for that reason. "Pysically inevitable" would have been much better.
I used to subscribe to that magazine and remember that article. Thanks.
Why not put the underground. Even Democrats are smart enough to dig a ditch.
"It's pretty tough to kill a transformer..." But it is possible to kill one.
Out in the open, my aunt fanny. After 9/11 our brilliant electric company decided to build talk brick walls around all theirs so no one can see who is inside doing what. Idiots.
They are right, if you're talking about just a few transformers. If someone were to mount a coordinated attack on 50 or a hundred? Yeah, not so much. Also, some attacks can take a while before the damage is noticed. Poke some holes in it such that the oil drips out slowly over a 24 hour period, and it's going to be hard to pin down even when the 'attack' actually was.
That's nothing. What I'm really terrified of is the thought of cats developing opposable thumbs. We're all toast once they don't need us to operate the can openers anymore.
“What I’m really terrified of is the thought of cats developing opposable thumbs.”
Years ago when people would chide me for my “Nuke the Whales” t-shirt, I would tell them, “they’ve got brains the size of Volkswagens. If they grow thumbs you can just cancel Christmas!” I don’t think I persuaded anybody.
I don’t have my notes handy, but there were a couple of US based operations that tested gamma yield weapons. In one, it took out the electronics from the Bikini Atoll all the way to Honolulu.
Done correctly, you could detonate only two weapons over the US and take it all out.
Nothing works absolutely, of course, but anything connected to a long conductor would almost certainly be fried. Smaller electronics - some would survive. Ironically, most commercial aircraft would be fine. They are already designed to take lightning strikes and continue to perform.
That just makes what Boeing does all the more amazing, by the way. You can’t ‘ground’ an aircraft, or a spacecraft, like a satellite.
Two weapons of the right yield detonated somewhere like Eastern Colorado and Western PA could do it. On the western side, you might launch a third off the California coast to compensate for any shadow effect offered by the Rocky Mountains.
We’re wide open to this too. I’m convinced we’ve got a ‘kill switch’ weapon in our arsenal somewhere based on the Israeli attack on the Bushear Nuclear Site in Syria. Two Israeli fighter/bombers took off from Northern Israel and entered Syrian airspace. Upon entering Syrian airspace the entire electrical grid went down, including power to the entire integrated air defense system protecting Southern Syria. The aircraft then destroyed the site and returned along the same flight path.
The entire operation happened in less than four hours, from pre-flight prep to debrief. They probably left, bombed the place, then had a snack.
Syrians confirmed that the site was destroyed. Israel confirmed they had made the attack, and nothing more by any government including ours was made on the matter publicly.
As such, I think enough evidence suggests that such a thing exists. It’s probably conventional, since a gamma burst attack in that region is the opposite of surgical.
The Russians, at the time, had lent the Syrians their best air defense technology. Israel shows their hand when they feel they have to, and destroying that site was a priority. Not sure how many aces the Israelis may have left up their very innovative sleeves. I hope there are a few more. They will need them in the age of his Imperial Majesty Obama I.
Thanks for an enlightening response.
Wow. Only 2 or 3! I took an interest in this thread because I do engineering in the Power industry. If you have not read the book "One Second After" yet, it is right up your alley-an EMP strike on America. As realistic as an imagination can get. (I did not know about the commercial aircraft.)
If a small country like Iran or North Korea wanted to neutralize the United States, an EMP strike would be most economical and devilishly practical. But, could these wannabe rulers control the aftermath? No. Nor could they stop the inrushing nuc laden missiles from submarines and hardened silos.
As far as things up the sleeves, I know by plain logical extension that there are many. Black ops research has been going on for decades.
How difficult is it to repair/reman the ones shot up?
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Generally, it is faster to repair, all you need to do is rewind the coils, but that is no simple task.
The frame of the transformer is one of the items that take a long time to make, it involves thousands of plates of metal many different sizes and hundreds of them must match exactly.
The big weight of the transformer is copper wire, tons and tons of it, literally. They have to be wound to exact tolerances to be as efficient as possible and to keep them from burning up. They have to be cooled, often with oil tubes running through the plates and coils. Wiring these monstrosities is no simple task and may require over a million bends of wire. This wire is not like you have in the little adapter that powers your computer or laptop but big stuff, much of it too thick to bend by hand.
So, yes repair may be possible and faster than new but that does not make it fast.
Good info, thanks.
Based on what I’ve learned on here, it would be far more economical to protect what we have now than have backups in place.
But I suspect our utilities are getting far more pressure from the regime over their carbon emissions than grid reliability.
it should be simple to make them modular. Stack ‘em in series to step up voltage, in parallel to increase amperage, and some combination of both.
Actually, no. These transformers are designed to handle a maximum load. If you had two identical transformers then (theoretically) you should be able to put them in parallel and double the load, but, what happens is they are not identical and over time the differences increase. As soon as there is a difference, even a very small difference then the load shifts to the one with less resistance. As soon as that happens it overheats and fails.
130 miles up is optimum. You could use an R-17, which is called a ‘Scud B’. They’ve been making them forever, which means you can get a hold of one pretty easily.
I’m sort of shocked it hasn’t happened yet besides Syria, an EMP or grid related attack.
Again, you’ll have pockets where the grid will survive, and anyone who hasn’t connected their generators to a distribution system should be OK.
Cars being transported by ferry might survive, for example. Submarines would make it, given water is a conductor and there is so much of it. The sub itself is an almost ideal faraday cage.
Naval ships not on shore power should be OK.
The issue, initially will be fixing the leaks in the distribution system. Insulation will be ‘punctured’ in many locations.
But one over the North East is enough to send the USA into a tail spin.
There was an old saying back in the '80's: There are 3 superpowers, the Soviet Union, the United States and a Trident Submarine. The "boomer" submarines are normally real deep and unaffected by such attacks, at any given time. Enough nuc-power to neutralize any country.
The key is trucks, tractor trailers. If they can keep running in various areas, we can rebuild fast. If you have not read that book, than you will enjoy it I am sure.
The trucks would likely be toast. The other thing that would be toast are large electrical smelters. You need them to make the iron cores for the transformers.
The good news is you can make them in Korea and ship them here if the US is on its back.
I’ll look into the book.
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