Russia doesn’t need to drop a shitload of nukes on ‘Murika. Looks like just a few EMPs will do the trick.
====
U.S. Power Grid Is At Risk Of Catastrophic Failure?
The North American power grid is old. Very fucking old.
The original design was engineered to only last 50 years with the assumption that future generations would upgrade and improve the system. That has rarely happened unless a system or station has a significant failure, and even then the fix falls in the category of repairs, not replacement.
As a result, there are parts of the North American grid that are about 100 years old. In a study done by the American Society of Engineers the power grid was graded D+ for reliability. It’s troubling to think that a system so critical to our survival is in the range of a failing grade. Worse, some estimates put a critical repair to the North American grid at $5 trillion dollars.
The North American Power grid may be one of the most complex systems on Earth. And it’s important to note that the power grid is just not about the U.S.The grid stretches across the U.S. and up into Canada powering and ultimately affecting all of North America.
On a basic level, the grid is composed of 3 interconnections serving many states and provinces with the exception of a single interconnection in Texas. The fragility of any interconnection was demonstrated in the winter of 2021 when weather extremes induced by climate change almost brought down the entire Texas interconnection.
But while 3 basic grid interconnections may seem simple it gets worse. Local power service providers are broken down into subregions within the intersections. These subregions are serviced by local utilities that have varying degrees of integrity in terms of the age and condition of their equipment and power stations.
But it gets more complex. The power grid that exists today was first built after World War II from designs dating back to Thomas Edison, using technology that primarily dates back to the ’60s and ’70s. Its 7,000 power plants are connected by power lines with a combined total of more than 5 million miles, all managed by 3,300 utilities serving 150 million customers.
According to industry group Edison Electric Institute. The whole system is valued at $876 billion. No one person owns or controls it. It’s 3,300 different companies, both public and private sector, that own or operate little pieces of the electric grid. The result is that no single entity government or otherwise has the ability or authority to manage it.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
Because according to a report from the congressionally funded EMP Commission, power grid failure for one year would result in the death of nine out of every 10 Americans.
Full article below.
SOURCE: sevenwop.home.blog
THE END
Thanks to the neo liberal politicians putting profit above all else and not making long term investments for everyone’s survival.
Thorium salt nukes:
Save petroleum for petrochemistry.
Downvotes? From TBP, or deep state bots? Thorium salt nuclear reactors would solve most energy issues cleanly and safely for thousands of years, while we R&D ourselves even better stuff, like zero-point and scalar, and who knows what all else.
Many years ago, the now-defunct, but archived, petrol industry site The Oil Drum, carried a quote from an anonymous oil exec to the effect that, petrol is so valuable to modern civilization chemically, that burning it just to heat water is tantamount to burning Rembrandts and Picassos for energy.
https://energyfromthorium.com/author/kfsorensen/
http://theoildrum.com/special/archives
Yes, unfortunately the bill for all the decades of neglect and malfeasance of this nation’s infrastructure is going to come due soon. It ain’t going to be pretty.
Oh, no! Davos may go dark!!!
Nothing concerns me more than an EMP. Not only will it take out the grid, but also almost every other device that relies on electronics. I have a small solar back-up system, but it would more than likely get fried by an EMP. I have a very old generator that would probably survive, but where would I find gasoline for long term?
That’s one of the problem with solar. The inverter would get fried, and if you have batteries, the charge controller too (and maybe some other shit). I think wiring is affected to, no?
Gassification?
1. Faraday cages
2. Buried tanks
Petroleum is not that stable. Gasoline will turn to varnish over time and diesel is prone to algae growth. You can add stabilizers to help maintain the products, but neither is a multi-year solution.
Agreed, but like stored food, use and replace, up until the moment of truth.
And then you ration as long as it lasts
Gas is one of the worst for long term storage. Propane is one of the best.
Bio-diesel is probably the one thing that can be made at home in a TEOTWAWKI event. Rendered fat makes diesel. Mechanical injection and no computer diesels will be the thing to have.
But everyone should have a good think about if the would want to be around when the world goes back to ~1820 tech/power wise. I doubt many would once reality sinks in.
But everyone should have a good think about if the would want to be around when the world goes back to ~1820 tech/power wise.
That is why they predict 90+% of the population will die within a year.
“Rendered fat makes diesel.”
Looking around at your average American, there should be no lack of fat to render after an EMP.
Post-apocalypse Exxon ad:
“Put a ghettopotamus in your tank!”
~ Bony the Tiger
1885 tech I could live with.
I’ve thought for sometime that high-output kerosene lighting may well become important again, though much hasn’t been manufactured for a long time. When an emergency is afoot, there’s nothing more simple or satisfying than having light when no one else does.
Charcoal starter is the best lamp oil.
No stink
I’ve fired up my 1880s oil lamps more than once during power outages. Gives a pleasant glowing light and some heat too.
+1 TN P,
consider converting your gas engine to propane. Gasoline has a limited shelf life as does diesel, propane will sit and wait till your tank rusts out w/ no degradation.
Not difficult mechanically speaking, added bonus, seldom to never having to change oil, till it becomes ‘milky’.
My forklift, ’77 vintage , and my former lawnmower, 13 hp Honda powered Snapper always start first try. Retired the mower, a ’71 because I literally wore the wheels off it!
Only down side to propane is a 8~10% power reduction, up side, longer engine life, cooler operating temps!
I keep 500 gallons on the ground, runs my furnace, stove, water heater, forkey and moar!
Peace, L.
Can’t throw new wheels onto the mower?
Did you not note the vintage? I rebuilt it many times, as a mechanic I have a clue as when to cut losses.
L.
Mine runs gasoline, propane, natural gas, what ever I can get my hands on. If you buy a dual fuel generator, it is ridiculously easy to make it also run on natural gas. Gasoline – most power. Propane -20% less. Natural gas- the least BTU but the cheapest, cleanest available. The generator isn’t an inverter, so the computer items don’t like it’s hertz output. But on natural gas, it run so smoothly, the computer items never even hiccup.
diesel has a very long shelf life even in cold climates. there are a few ways to store it to make it less prone to gel or algae. Diesel has a very high BTU, has lubricating characters and your engine will last longer. You can centrifuge waste motor oil and blend it with 20% gasoline to make “black diesel” which also stores very well and will run in most tractors and generators, even in older ford IDI diesels and early power stroke diesels. I write this through experience, and have a centrifuge.
L,
500 GALLONS OR 500 POUNDS?
Hat tip if it’s gallons!
Yes, gallons. Been out here in the sticks for 22 years. Well hedged.
L.
Economic Strike on China, or something else?
17 October 2022
London, England
My first question is where’s the catch? OGUS never doers something in the best interests of America, Americans, or civilization. And so on first glance, this appears to be a patriotic strike on CCP, but we know from the fact pattern — such as leaving American borders wide open, destroying our food and energy supplies, Afghan and Ukraine debacles — that OGUS does not behave in our best interests, or in the bests interests of anything living other than themselves.
OGUS is Occupation Government United States.
https://gab.com/Michael_Yon/posts/109191053133914737
Credibility destroyed right here:
Yeah, I have a hard time reading anything past a statement like that.
Everyone who pushes that crap has an agenda. They are the biggest bullshit artists out there. I have no doubt the grid sucks, hell, we run on standby power about 8-10 days per year here, but the mindset taints everything they say.
The climate change comment was rather benign. Why? Because he didn’t say MAN MADE climate change.
I give him the benefit of the doubt …. that he realizes climate changes constantly.
But, even if he meant man-made climate change why would he lose credibility if everything else he said is true?
Yeah, it’s one of my pet peeves; people who “stop reading right there” over one or two disagreeable comments. Bunch of snow-flake pussies.
Well, my view is why even mention it?
Most seem to agree that the climate is ALWAYS changing. Admin posts plenty of articles showing historic cycles, complete with “you are here” graphics.
Just dropping it in a sentence and then offering no comment or evidence to justify it, one way or the other, seems completely pointless.
The author could have written that it was due to an unusual fluctuation in the jet stream and it, at least, would have been more understandable.
And I love snowflakes AND pussy.
They really go together well, actually. My first pussy was on my back on snowflakes – fucking up, as usual. Heck, I’m a gentleman . . . couldn’t let the lady lie on the muddy, half-frozen ground.
Hey Stucky do us all a favor and take another month off you fear mongering fucking WHORE, give it a rest already.
If he didn’t mean “political climate change” he would never have mentioned it.
He meant to start shit.
if the climate changes constantly then there is no point in mentioning, boomerkunt
Wasn’t climate change, wasn’t the weather extremes. Texas gets those on a regular basis. It was lack of required maintenance, in part due to Covid/gov response induced staffing issues. Look it up.
It might’ve also been deep state punishment for Texas resisting some federal or NWO fiat.
They did way too much of this in Texas:
WHY??? because natural gas prices went up and the EPA required expensive emission controls to reduce nitrogen oxides.
BTW the old Parkdale DP&L plant was near my childhood home, burned pipeline natural gas OR fuel oil stored on site.
Did they build a new combined cycle plant replacement? NO!!! OH HELL NO!!! Luminant donated the property to the City of Dallas for a damned park.
yep
Actually, much of the grid is so jerry rigged that just knocking out a few large transformers would bring down the East coast grid…
My thoughts, as well.
The government actually did a study and found that a dozen strategic strikes could bring it down. They have since tried to harden some of the more vulnerable distribution points, but a lot of transmission towers are in some really remote areas, making them difficult to repair. Imagine if towers on 12 different lines feeding NYC were taken down at the same time. Even 6 would probably overload the system to brownout conditions.
Do away with the electricity and the urbanites would have a field day. Rape, pillage and plunder.
Transformers take ages to build and cost a bundle. And they ain’t sittin’ round some warehouse, ready to go.
Darn near that in 2003. NE blackout. Started in NY went into Canada and down to Ohio just north of Columbus. All the automatic trips that were supposed to keep it from spreading like that didn’t.
One guy with a rifle and a car to move around, could wipe out most areas before the authorities realized someone was popping holes in the big transformers.
Everything is converging at nearly the same time. The infrastructure is falling apart, the stock market is close to a 1929 type collapse, the supply chain is completely hosed up, farming and the production of food is being purposely destroyed or taken over, the moral decline is beyond imagination, the medical field is beholden to the pharmaceutical companies and is corrupted, along with every government agency from the bottom to the top.
Life is good and getting better. /s
Spoken like a true Biden.
I’ll bet you’re a lot of fun at parties. 🙂
Yeah, I’m good like that! 😉
Any people here with experience with the grid, how it works, what would happen to it in case of an attack (any kind), any interesting anecdotes?
It was summer of 1977 and there was a big electrical storm. We went to the biggest hill in the area, Washington Rock … about 20 some miles from NYC as the crow flies … because the view is spectacular, and, if lucky, you could see 10 or more lighting strikes at one time.
You can see the NYC skyline clearly. And then it happened. Lighting hit something important — and the NYC skyline went black.
Ho. Lee. Shit. One of the eeriest things I’ve ever witnessed!
Read the article. The grid is massive and controlled by several thousand different utility companies. It is mostly interconnected so they can sell power from region to region, but mostly is designed to get power from the generating station to the different utility customers in the immediate area. An attack could have an affect on other utility companies, depending on the type of attack. EMP is the most serious as it would take out most electronics in the affected area and the pulse could (?) travel through the distribution lines to take out remote locations. We really do not know what would happen in the case of an EMP attack or a series of them.
Civilization as we know it would end, instantly. 90% + would die within a year, no food/water.
Anyone remember the August 14-15th northeastern 2003 blackout? At the time, it was the world’s second most widespread blackout in history, after the 1999 Southern Brazil blackout.The outage, which was much more widespread than the Northeast blackout of 1965, affected an estimated 10 million people in southern and central Ontario, and 45 million people in eight U.S. states.
That was short – less than 48 hours – but gives you an idea of how even some small software bug could allow a cascading effect of shutdowns affecting millions. Notice on the map how the Eastern Interconnection is missing the Canuckistan province of Quebec? That’s because, like everything Quebec, they do things differently, and are on their own system. Ottawa was in blackout that night, so we simply drove across the river into Hull for some nightlife.
The ice storm of 1998 however was no cause to party. Millions were left in the dark for periods varying from days to several weeks, and in some instances, months. It led to 34 fatalities, a shutdown of activities in large cities like Montreal and Ottawa, and an unprecedented effort in reconstruction of the power grid. The ice storm led to the largest deployment of Canadian military personnel since the Korean War, with over 16,000 Canadian Forces personnel deployed, 12,000 in Quebec and 4,000 in Ontario at the height of the crisis. Ourselves, we were without power for only 3 days.
Last but not least was this May’s derecho. Three cities across southern Ontario declared a state of emergency. At least eleven people were killed, mostly by falling trees.Power outages affected an estimated 1.1 million customers, and thousands were still without power a week after the storm.Hydro Ottawa described the damage dealt to its power distribution system as more severe than the 1998 ice storm. The storm was the sixth-costliest event in Canadian history.
Moral of the story – have a backup generator and a bugout location. The grid is failing and susceptible to just about anything at anytime.
I remember the 1998 ice storm. I was unaffected (living around Quebec City), but some lost power for over a month. People jerry-rigged generators using their cars. That’s why I like buried power lines (which is possible in cities and suburbs), reduces damage…
Yes the grid is ancient and needs to be upgraded and hardened against attack. But that’s not going to happen because you will NEVER get the 300o+ companies running it to agree on any of the required details and consumers will refuse to foot the bill. Being a grid comprised of 3K companies is both good and bad. Good that it’s not a monopoly run by a handful of corrupt companies. Bad that it’s so fractured nobody can accomplish anything majorly important.
Sounds like the old Articles of Confederation vs. U.S. Constitution debate to me. There’s always a fly in the ointment no matter what.
It is impossible to totally harden the grid against an EMP. If there is any exposed area it will allow backfeed. To be secure the entire grid would have to be encased in a continuous Faraday cage of some kind. Can’t be done IMO.
🙂
Mostly the right nine.
The national grid is obsolete and in danger of failing? What a great opportunity! We just KNOW that everyone will be driving electric cars in another 10 or 15 years. That increase in power usage by itself would necessitate a DOUBLING of all existing grid structures. We can just go ahead and replace the original grid while we are building the new equivalent for the cars. After all, we have 15 years to do it.
Problem solved!
And for my next trick I will end world hunger, end war, and cure cancer — all in the next decade or so! (It is fun thinking like a leftist…)
Thorium salt nukes would actually make much of that possible.
Why the downvote? Deep state? Or TBP? Thorium salt would fix tons of energy issues.
Can we get Powell to print up the Trillion$ required to do the updated grid.
Naww, better idea, lets just ignore it and send a few MoAr billions to the peckerwood in the pukraine! s
L.
Thorium salt nukes:
Save petroleum for petrochemistry.
Why the downvote?
Boomers …silver lining, bruh..
Anyone other than me ever heard of NERC? How about FERC?
The article says, “no single entity government or otherwise has the ability or authority to manage it.”, but that is not entirely correct.
I’m familiar with both entities. Both are bureaucracies that produce rules to run your utility business by. None of them has ever produced a single KW of power, but they have the power to tell others how to do it.
Like the Dep’t of Ed – never taught nobody nothin’. .Gov is basically useless . . .
Yeah, MoAr rules AND guberment!!! Not.
L.
The Amish will have to be informed or they would never notice there had been an EMP attack. The horses will not be affected, maybe I’ll hitch a ride. 🙂
attended a lecture at the war collage back in the late 1980’s about EMP. it was one of the most awaking ones I ever
attended there. 1) the US has at best a 30-40 day supply of food. that includes everything. stores, warehouses, crops in the fields, stock yards and even boats in harbor. everything.
2) they figured about 60-70% of the people will be dead inside of 6 months.
3) rule of law might last 2 days in some places, the farther you are from a central power, the time line gets shorter
fast.
4) back then, they figured about 60% of all cars/trucks will be dead. now, it will be closer to 90% or higher
anything made before 1980 might be made to work again, but you are going to replace a lot of parts to do so.
they also pointed out that the lack of clean drinking water will kill off most people after a month or so.
and here the best part, we don’t even make the parts of our own power grid here anymore.
over 90% of all the main parts are made elsewhere thanks to the EPA !
and these fools think we can fight ww2 all over again ? yeah, right.
we no longer make things here. like tools, machines and we do not have a skilled workforce like we
once did either. that wonderful time, the 1980’s. when companies where closing down and shipping jobs
overseas where they make even more money for themselves while cities turned into wastelands
Tis why we prep folks,we could have a natural emp via Carrington Affect ect.
You have some solar/have spare parts protected ect.
Propane has a long shelf life.
Hand pumps made to pull water up to 600 feet.
Do the best you can with what you have,build community you can trust to spread the tools/costs around.
As always,prepper cat is with you.
For any national actor to take out the power grid wouldn’t be all that hard. You could probably smuggle an EMP device in a container of machinery parts of something. Ship several. With the backlog in shipping theres a likelihood that one or more would make it thru. Have them sent near major switching station and blown… No need to launch nukes when you can send an EMP to your enemies doorstep… Who would the US respond to?? China, Russia??? who???
Hmmmm….,as it tis fall I say we burn Leafs for energy/heat this season!
Your challenge from a few days ago is accepted(sorry for late reply)!
Burning Leafs,tis the right thing to do!
Just think of all the rampaging Karens when they are no longer able to secure their Xanax and chardonnay. Pure mayhem.
Nah, they’ll quickly revert to their timeless state of nature, and become docile fellatrices for the first guy who they think will feed and protect them. They need cum a lot more than Xanax, Chardonnay, careers, cats, cars, condominiums and condoms. That’s why they’re insane today. Electrogeddon will be the sexual Great Reset. They won’t need a SCOTUS-appointed biologist to define womanhood for them anymore. They’ll just know.
Electric grid, bridges, dams… all getting to or past end of service life. TVA dams for instance. That type of construction intended to last 100-150 years. Not too far from the 100 year mark. Hear of anyone saving up to replace them all? Me neither. Really don’t want to contemplate an upstream dam going and starting domino effect. Oh, and there goes your aging electric grid too. Fun times.
Since there is no such thing as an atomic bomb, no EMP. A lot of other bad stuff could happen though.
“Weather extremes caused by climate change” caused me to stop reading and caused me to type this:
” I am a climate change denier and damned proud of it”.
There, now I feel better, but will not finish the article.
Some people say to ignore that tripe, but if an author will put that crap in, I don’t trust anything else they have to say, it will most likely be slanted toward libtardian bullcrap. Not sorry.
In the first place the “grid” is not a single monolithic network. Nothing including a EMP could take down the entire grid. Every utility company in the nation has been working on hardening their systems for the past 2 decades.
Every utility in the country has their system protected by SCADA systems which can detect faults or anomalies instantly and make disconnections in a fraction of a second to protect equipment.
Nuclear is the last thing we need to be building more of until we figure out someway to deal with the waste. Nuclear plants are stupidly expensive to build and run, and most end up costing rate payers many times more than all the alternatives.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with natural gas powered stations unless you believe the global warming nonsense, and they have had hydrogen fuel cell technology worked out for about a decade now.
Making electricity is not rocket science, it is as simple as turning a turbine, and there are a multitude of ways to do that.
The problems with electric generation are created by the industry itself. The electric industry has been run by the biggest crooks in the nation ever since JP Morgan blackmailed Westinghouse into signing over the patents to alternating current. The issue is not how to more effectively make electricity, it is how the oligarchs can maintain their monopoly over electricity, and make sure you and your descendants are paying them every month for the entirety of your lives…
To make matters even worse, the wind and solar connections occur after the substation transfers and lack any kind of maintenance. The power generation for the main grid interconnects (those big ole towers and lines) are either hydro, fossil fuel, or nuclear. Those generation sources are very high voltage for long distance travel and can be relied on to “balance the grid” if a substation fails. Solar and wind sources are not high voltage and are simply connected to municipal transmission lines at the source. They provide power to be used within that transmission source, which lowers draw from the substations, but has no ability to balance the grid if another substation goes down.
Imagine millions of solar and wind farms trying to power a full grid. DISASTER
If you can find one, buy a 500 gal. underground LP tank. And a suitable generator (24 KV for us).