What if all the lights go out?

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-electricity-transformers-vulnerable-20140316,0,4805837.story



The U.S. is at risk of a nationwide blackout — and policymakers and industry have known this for years.

What if all the lights go out?
By The Times editorial board
March 16, 2014

Californians may be inured to rolling blackouts that cut off their power for hours at a time, but imagine an outage that darkens the entire country — for more than a year. That nightmare scenario could happen if just a handful of crucial, heavy-duty electrical transformers are taken down, according to a confidential federal report disclosed last week by the Wall Street Journal. Federal regulators and the utilities' trade association were outraged that the report was leaked, but the real outrage is that this vulnerability persists even though policymakers and industry executives have known about it for years.

The transformers at issue raise the voltage of the power generated so it can be transmitted across long distances. The size of overfed dumpsters, they are custom fitted into arrays in utility substations, often in industrial or remote areas. Last April, unidentified shot holes in 17 transformers at a Pacific Gas & Electric substation near San Jose, forcing PG&E to scramble to reroute power. The utility averted a blackout, but the attack — which authorities have been investigating as vandalism, not terrorism — highlighted how susceptible substations could be.

Given that there are tens of thousands of substations on the national grid, PG&E's experience may not seem so alarming. But according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission study disclosed by the Journal, a few dozen of the substations are so important to the flow of energy that knocking out just nine of them would cause a metastasizing blackout that stretched from coast to coast. And replacement transformers for these substations can take more than a year to build, deliver and install, in part because most are made overseas.

Industry officials downplayed the FERC study and said they've been preparing for attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, developing a system to share spare transformers. But that's not very reassuring, considering that heavy-duty transformers aren't interchangeable. Acting FERC Chairwoman Cheryl A. LaFleur also noted that the commission had just ordered the development of new mandates for keeping "critical" utility assets safe from physical attack.

[liberal N proud]

1. That is why I bought a generator

I still need to get a connection to make available for whole house.

[newfie11]

3. We had the power company put a plug in on the power pole.

So we can start the generator, have it run into the house but it cannot go back wards and electrocute a lineman.

[liberal N proud]

6. I just have not got done yet.

[newfie11]

2. It depends

What time of year and where you live.
Here most people have wood stoves so heating and cooking would not be a problem.
Well water would not be available unless you have a generator.
There are few apartments in my little town.
Things would not be too bad for a couple of days here.
After that things would get hard!!

In large cities I can't imagine the problems.

[CrispyQ]

4. There was a time in Colorado when most of one's energy costs were during the winter,

now, I think it's the summer, at least for people who use air conditioning.

I worked for a woman who lived in a 10,000 square foot house & she told me their air conditioning bill in the summer was $800. That was several years ago.

[phantom power]

5. well, as long as they keep making me take off my shoes and belt I'm sure we're fine

[pscot]

7. It will be like 1850

with 9 billion mouths to feed.

[CFLDem]

8. If all the lights go out

I'll finally be able to see the stars in all of their natural splendor!

🌌⭐️🌠

[newfie11]

9. That's one good thing