Good observations. But are you suggesting this drill is necessary? How does a continental "drill" including the participation of Feebs and Reich Security remedy our shortcomings?
Good observations. But are you suggesting this drill is necessary? How does a continental "drill" including the participation of Feebs and Reich Security remedy our shortcomings?
Since the beginning of this year alone, my power has gone out several times, probably about 6 to 8 times, anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours at a time. And none of these power outages have been as a result of wind or lightning strikes but from transformer and other local utility company equipment failures.
One morning earlier in the year I heard the bang of the transformer exploding nearby and was without power for several hours, then the power came back on for about 20 minutes and then went back out for a couple of more hours. According to MetEd, the cause of the first outage was that a transformer failed and the cause of the second was that another transform up the line got overheated and caught fire because of the re-routing of power due to the 1st outage and also set a nearby tree on fire closing the road for about an hour.
During the last big 100 degree heat wave, a transformer, I think at the very same place as the one before, exploded, I heard the bang. The power came back on a few minutes later but only minimally, i.e. it was a brown out and even worse, it kept surging up and down, and with barely enough electricity to power the light bulbs and not enough power to keep my fridge or AC running – I unplugged the TV and computer and the AC unit off to prevent any damage due to the power fluctuations. Then a few days later, without the power ever going completely out, the same thing happened – brown out – no TV, no AC, no microwave, compressor in the fridge wouldn’t come on, heck even the little table top fan wasn’t getting enough juice to turn the blades and the lights were so dim that I got more light from burning candles. This lasted about five hours.
Just last Wednesday morning I lost power again for about four hours, the cause according to MetEd; “an equipment switching failure”.
I agree with bigbob in that our power grid infrastructure is aging and becoming increasing fragile. And when you look at what happened in Quebec in 1989, our power grid is vulnerable to solar storms. While such events are rare and the power grid failure in Quebec was mostly isolated to that area, it put a huge strain on the US power grid as it is interconnected.
In a cascade effect, U.S. utility companies found themselves dealing with problems of their own. Across the United States more than 200 power grid problems erupted within minutes of the start of the outage, although fortunately none caused a blackout.
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/07/15/SciTechTalk-When-the-sun-brought-darkness/UPI-62461342348260/#ixzz2dg37TXkS
Our power system is also increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks along with some commercial HVAC systems that depend on computer controls that allow remote access over unsecured networks.
My niece’s husband is a service manager for a commercial HVAC company that services retail stores, retirement communities, hospitals and even a coal power plant. He is able to remotely log into their HVAC control systems in order to monitor issues or make adjustments or assist an on-site technician. One day he showed me how lax some of these controls are. In one customer’s system the default user ID was “HVAC” and the password was “password”. In another system he was with very little trouble, able to gain access to their entire network because the HVAC system was not firewalled. One day while logging into the power plant’s HVAC system, he accidently found himself in their main network and in an area that appeared to contain power grid programs and controls. He immediately logged out and informed the plant manager of the security breech but said that it was scary to him that if he could get into this by accident, that a dedicated and only semi competent hacker could cut through their security like a hot knife through butter.
My understanding of this is a “simulated drill” and that no power systems will be taken off line at any time. But that what they will do is simulate what a massive power grid failure might look like, whether it is because of a solar storm or other natural disaster or a coordinated cyber attack. Power grid operators would benefit from such a simulation as it would help them understand what and what not to do to keep the power on for most and get it restored as quickly as possible and look for vulnerabilities.
While I understand the concern that this might be some sort of “drill for “evil” intents” some of you who are complaining about this drill are the very same ones who would loudly complain after a massive power grid failure, that the power companies and the government ignored the problem for years and didn’t prepare or train how to respond for such an event ahead of time.