Posted on 08/20/2026 3:46:19 AM PDT by Libloather
The US is at a heightened risk of a catastrophic blackout that could last up to 18 months due to aging power grid infrastructure that takes agonizingly long to update and is potentially vulnerable to a precision weapon strike.
The alarming vulnerability was brought to light in 2013 by Jon Wellinghoff, former chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), after a coordinated attack on a California electrical substation in April 2013.
The gunmen fired 120 shots, taking out an alarming 17 transformers at a Pacific Gas and Electric’s Metcalf electrical substation just outside San Jose, New York Times Magazine reported.
FERC soon thereafter conducted a power flow analysis to model how a disruption at critical substations — where multiple high-voltage lines meet — would impact the US power grid, which the outlet notes is actually divided into three sections: the Western, Eastern and Texas Interconnections.
“We came up with some very astounding numbers,” Wellinghoff said.
“If you knock out nine total substations along those three grids, you can black out the entire United States.”
He said it didn’t even matter which nine were hit, as long as each was among the 10 most important in its respective region, and that with enough guns the entire grid could be taken out in 20 minutes.
“It’s probably something that a bunch of 12-year-olds with the internet could do pretty easily. All you have to do is look at a map of the grid and figure out where most of the wires go into the substations — that’s a critical substation,” Wellinghoff said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I'd love for someone with greater knowledge to correct me.
Don’t care anything about Nancy Pelosi or what she has or hasn’t. What about the criminals who shot out those transformers? Was justice served?
Texas is not on the US grid. It has it’s own grid.
While true, you think TX substations are in any way hardened?
The Metcalf transformer shootings in 2013 occurred just down the coast from Pelosi’s San Francisco, and you're right - no one has been held responsible. There’ve been additional transformer shootings, including one in 2022 under Biden. I personally don't know what they've done to stop this or find the perpetrators.
There is currently something like a two-year backlog for the construction of a new GSU (generator step up) transformer for power plants right now. If these things are shot at, there aren’t that many available for replacements now or in the foreseeable future. It’s a big vulnerability.
No power in America for 60 days and people will be killing and eating other people. We will regress to the Stone Age in six months without electricity.
The towers will be dead.
all of our resources have been spent on ‘diversity’ and immigration. No resources left for the American people, sorry. But at least it made bleeding hearts feel good about themselves.
I start locking up after about 20 minutes once FR’s world-wide-webs go down. This could be trouble.
Hey, but MySpace is coming back. We need more data centers to store stupid cat videos.
60 days? It took one morning to empty all the stores near me of toilet paper during the great toilet paper shortage of 2019. There were fights, hoarding, etc. Over toilet paper.
Only things missing from this article are maps with X’s marking the spot to hit and exact details of what you would need to accomplish this.
18 month blackout? I’m good with that. I want to retire early anyway.
You are more generous than I. I would give it about 6 days, and all hell will break loose. Panic would be off the charts.
No, but it would take a seperate attack. I just think the article says if the whole grid goes down, it is implied the whole grid in the US goes down. I think there is more to the story.
2019?
Or 2020?
Clearly the solution is to build more data centers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.