Posted on 12/03/2015 5:54:06 AM PST by Steve Schulin
The highway bill that emerged from House-Senate conference committee includes much that doesn't have much to do with surface transportation, including a section which could save millions of lives in the event of an electro-magnetic pulse attack. ...
Here's the section on the Strategic Transformer Reserve:
SEC. 61004. STRATEGIC TRANSFORMER RESERVE.
(a) Finding.--Congress finds that the storage of strategically located spare large power transformers and emergency mobile substations will reduce the vulnerability of the United States to multiple risks facing electric grid reliability, including physical attack, cyber attack, electromagnetic pulse, geomagnetic disturbances, severe weather, and seismic events.
...
(c) Strategic Transformer Reserve Plan.--
(1) Plan.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary [of Energy], acting through the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, shall, in consultation with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Electricity Sub-sector Coordinating Council, the Electric Reliability Organization, and owners and operators of critical electric infrastructure and defense and military installations, prepare and submit to Congress a plan to establish a Strategic Transformer Reserve for the storage, in strategically located facilities, of spare large power transformers and emergency mobile substations in sufficient numbers to temporarily replace critically damaged large power transformers and substations that are critical electric infrastructure or serve defense and military installations...
(Excerpt) Read more at compleatadvocate.com ...
Oh this is a very big thing.
(I’m series)
Paging George Noory. He’ll be happy that (finally) someone in government is paying attention to this potentially catastrophic vulnerability the United States has allowed to develop.
For real.
This might be the first good idea I’ve seen from government in years.
FYI ping
They would all go to the D.C. area, you can bet on that.
Excellent find, and thanks for posting this.
Incidently, The FBI Infrastructure Industry task force meets to discuss this.
EMP is recognized as a huge threat.
The frustration has been the lack of executiveexecutive action to minimize the risk, such as ensuring we have sufficient spare power transformers.
I so despise politicians who willfully ignore addressing real serious threats.
But they better be GREEN transformers and not contain any Chlorinate d Biphenyl oils or the Erf will be in danger....................
One would think that with politicians’ penchant for spending money, that the purchase of a huge number of electrical transformers would be a no brainer. These transformers that the bill addresses are the HUGE ones, seen at power substations throughout the country, usually in fenced in areas (not safe from terrorists) that stand 20 feet tall.....................
Perhaps too little, too late.
I do not think so.
If this is for real. Noory has been going ape about this, for as long as I remember (a couple of years anyway) and he is completely correct to be fired up about this.
This is a huge problem. Big time. If we’re actually paying attention to this, it is huge.
One question with regard to EMP;
If there is a massive enough EMP to fry a grid or substation transformer, what good is a spare going to do?
Won't most electrical devices attached to the grid be fried too? In other words, the downed grid would have nothing (or little) to serve.
So again, what good is a spare?
It seems, on the surface, that this plan is being implemented to mitigate the effects of a determined or coordinated attack on the transformers that feed or are fed by the larger grid.
I believe the spares would be stored remotely, and protected against EMP.
You would need at least an entire set of spares. Maybe even two, to be safe. In my opinion.
This is a very big thing, in my opinion. For real.
So, a year from passage, they will submit a plan. Then how long after that will there be actual transformers built or delivered? 1 year? 2 years? More? Government moves but it moves very slowly.
By then, it could be too late.
> If there is a massive enough EMP to fry a grid or substation transformer, what good is a spare going to do?
Big transformers are long lead time item. Having spares would cut service restoration time from years to weeks.
And of course a few extras will be needed for the White House and a few more for Congress... and the pentagon, we need our leaders...
We may be better off with a good mineshaft plan.
“We must not allow a mineshaft gap!”
Yes I agree.
Our entire government needs to wake the heck up about this. How much money does our government spend on how many purely nonsense expenditures, yet this issue which is potentially HUGE, is just now getting a bit of attention?
Hello everyone. Wake the “F” up. This is very real, and more (and more) countries are developing the capability to fry our electrical grid, every day.
I’m completely series.
This is a very huge issue, and nobody has done one thing to protect our electrical grid until now (at least, that is public domain knowledge)
This is really a very big issue. Big time.
...So again, what good is a spare?....
These main transformers, are very hard to replace, I think they come from overseas suppliers, and take months or years to have an order filled for replacement.
Smaller transformers, for down line outages, are already kept in reserve already, because they do go out more frequently. Also you will need the larger transformers operating to be able to locate outages downline. They are the centerpoint of electrical distribution.
After Michael Bay killed off Jazz, and Ironhide, and Arcee, and Ratchet, having that as your first thought is completely justified.
Thus, these spares are best stored for instances of deliberate sabotage or attack.
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