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The Electrical Grid

Rexedgar

Rexedgar

Yo-Semite!
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The electric power just came on after about 12 hours. If there is ever an attack on our power grid and it does enough damage to last for a significant time, Americans will be ****ed.
 
Rexedgar said:
The electric power just came on after about 12 hours. If there is ever an attack on our power grid and it does enough damage to last for a significant time, Americans will be ****ed.
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This has been a danger for over 3 decades that both the state and federal governments have not adequately addressed. You would think hurricanes, tornadoes and storms would have made them understand but it hasn’t.
 
If Trump were so invested in the infrastructure, then he should be going hog wild for power grid improvements. Still waiting on them...
 
Praxas said:
This has been a danger for over 3 decades that both the state and federal governments have not adequately addressed. You would think hurricanes, tornadoes and storms would have made them understand but it hasn’t.
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Problem is the grid is privately owned. Neither state nor federal has any interest in securing.

I don't know how you can ever prevent deliberate catastrophic damage.
 
Rexedgar said:
The electric power just came on after about 12 hours. If there is ever an attack on our power grid and it does enough damage to last for a significant time, Americans will be ****ed.
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Ah, you dont live on the East or Gulf Coast, do you ? Im just South of Houston and if I remember correctly, Ike knocked our power out for 10 days. Harvey knocked a lot of people's power out too. Being without AC for days in what's basically a sub-tropical coastal climate during the summer is a special kind of hell, but people do manage to survive.

One of the areas most severely impacted by Harvey was the town of Kingwood, Tx. Its just northeast of Houston and water levels exceeded 7 feet in some areas, and flooded the High School.
That flood water came from lake Conroe after the San Jacinto River Authority was forced to release a estimated 106 Billion gallons of water from the Lake. Kingwood is a high end community with large homes that were equipped with whole home generators. Those generators were useless 3 feet under water
 
Rexedgar said:
The electric power just came on after about 12 hours. If there is ever an attack on our power grid and it does enough damage to last for a significant time, Americans will be ****ed.
Click to expand...
It's easy to forget how dependent we are upon electrical power. But live without power for an extended period of time, not hours but a number of days like a week or more, and you'll come to realize without power you live like in a 3rd world country!

If you only did without for 12 hours, you haven't even come close to appreciate what an extended loss of power entails. It's really bad.
 
Rexedgar said:
The electric power just came on after about 12 hours. If there is ever an attack on our power grid and it does enough damage to last for a significant time, Americans will be ****ed.
Click to expand...
Turn off the grid for several months Nation Wide and Millions of Americans would die, some put the number at nearly
90%. Easy to turn it all off, one high yield nuke high above Kansas and you shut this Nation down in seconds. Welcome to reality.
 
Rogue Valley said:
If a cyber attack targets our large power transformers (LPTs), we're so screwed. The US only has the capacity to replace 15% of our LPTs in any 2 year span of time.

Electric grid large power transformers take up to 2 years to build

Russia has been perfecting this art by cyber-attacking Ukraine's electrical grids.
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One of the under-reported Russian actions was them trying to hack into several east coast power grids, it was over shadowed by their election meddling. There is only One reason for them to do this, to me if sucessful it would be an act of war that would deserve a nuke reply.
 
Rexedgar said:
The electric power just came on after about 12 hours. If there is ever an attack on our power grid and it does enough damage to last for a significant time, Americans will be ****ed.
Click to expand...

Better aqueducts, better roads, better power grids, and more well regulated militia!
 
Rexedgar said:
The electric power just came on after about 12 hours. If there is ever an attack on our power grid and it does enough damage to last for a significant time, Americans will be ****ed.
Click to expand...


electricity = life; without it the modern world would cease to exist & billions would be dead within one, maybe two weeks ............... one month max

............ just imagine the CHAOS that a two week power outage would cause in ANY modern metro area; no stores open, no food, no nothing, people living like Mad Max in no time .........
 
Rexedgar said:
The electric power just came on after about 12 hours. If there is ever an attack on our power grid and it does enough damage to last for a significant time, Americans will be ****ed.
Click to expand...

I'm working in Puerto Rico on disaster recovery, and over 30% of the island's population still doesn't have power after FIVE MONTHS. Just yesterday, the entire city of San Juan lost power, once again, shutting down the entire government.

On a related note, at my house in North Carolina, I have a 45kw generator that runs off of LG gas with two underground tanks supplying it, one that's 1,000 gallons and the other 500 gallons. I have a standing order with the gas company, that when the power goes out, they come to my house to top off my tanks. So far they've done so every time. I can run that generator for a long time without refilling the tanks, and as long as the gas company can get to me to top off the tanks every few weeks, well...

I'm also putting in solar, but the damned government wants to require me to hook those up to the grid, force me to enter into an agreement with the private power company, and other such draconian mandates, rather than just letting me keep what I produce myself on my own land for my own use. I'm thinking of scrapping the entire solar idea at my place because of it.
 
danielpalos said:
Why is our infrastructure, not a high priority?
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It (infrastructure) has to compete with social spending and other sacrosanct spending requirements like the DoD and so forth.

The power grid is mostly privately owned, not public. So are the majority of the phone systems, and many other major utility systems like water and sewer. Certain cities still have government owned water and sewer, but more and more governments have privatized water and sewer beginning back in the late 1800's. Google "private water systems in the US" and see what pops up - it may surprise you.

Now, to answer your question: Most people in the US have had it hammered into their heads that tax payer money going to private companies is "corporate welfare." So, tax payer money being used to support or improve privately owned infrastructure is not a winning platform for politicians to stand on during elections. They would rather raise cane at the companies for loss of electrical power during a storm, or water main leaks, or phone system outages, than to give tax payer money to private companies, even if that money were just in the form of a loan.

Roads? Those are a little different, but getting road projects started can take a decade due to environmental regulations, population impact studies, and so on, and so on, that are mandated by the same government that cannot for the life of them figure out why "shovel ready" only applies to their speeches on the floor of the House or the Senate and in no way describes a highway construction project.
 
Chomsky said:
It's easy to forget how dependent we are upon electrical power. But live without power for an extended period of time, not hours but a number of days like a week or more, and you'll come to realize without power you live like in a 3rd world country!

If you only did without for 12 hours, you haven't even come close to appreciate what an extended loss of power entails. It's really bad.
Click to expand...

I wasn't trying to compare my situation with any others of more significance, just that 12 hours without power was eye opening in the 'loss of control' over basic things that one comes to take for granted. Last power outage of note was 2004 for about 4-5 days. Once every 14 years is insignificant in the world order, I am aware. I cannot imagine the plight of the people (citizens) of Puerto Rico, "they tell me I was born there!"


 
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