America's greatest threat is our vulnerable electrical grid

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Maverick

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With all the bad going on we shouldn't lose sight of other issues that would be even more devistating

Kyle Mills: Terror or bio attack, nukes? No, America's greatest threat is our vulnerable electrical grid

It’s been called the most complex machine in the world and that’s probably a fair description. Three thousand three hundred utility companies, fifty-five thousand individual substations, and two hundred thousand miles of transmission lines all coordinate to meet the country’s insatiable demand for power. Unfortunately, it’s this scope and complexity that makes us so vulnerable.

And this isn’t just a theoretical threat. In 2013, a meticulously planned attack was carried out on a substation near San Jose, California. It caused fifteen million dollars in damage and looked very much like a dry run for something bigger.

None of the perpetrators were ever caught and if they are indeed plotting something more ambitious, it could be unimaginably destructive.

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, only nine critical substations would have to be disabled to plunge the entire country into darkness for eighteen months or more. Nine. None of which likely have much more security than the San Jose facility.

Even more sobering are the cyberattacks. According to former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, malicious actors probe our systems hundreds of thousands of times a day.

One of the most serious incidents occurred in 2017 when Russian hackers penetrated deep enough to actually take control of parts of our grid. Based on testimony given to Congress by the director of the National Security Agency, a number of our enemies likely already have the ability to put the entire country in the dark.

COVID has given us all a glimpse into the dangers of not being prepared for a crisis. We now have some inkling as to what it would be like to try to survive without the machinery that makes modern society possible.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/terror-bio-attack-nukes-threat-power-grid
 
With all the bad going on we shouldn't lose sight of other issues that would be even more devistating

Kyle Mills: Terror or bio attack, nukes? No, America's greatest threat is our vulnerable electrical grid

It’s been called the most complex machine in the world and that’s probably a fair description. Three thousand three hundred utility companies, fifty-five thousand individual substations, and two hundred thousand miles of transmission lines all coordinate to meet the country’s insatiable demand for power. Unfortunately, it’s this scope and complexity that makes us so vulnerable.

And this isn’t just a theoretical threat. In 2013, a meticulously planned attack was carried out on a substation near San Jose, California. It caused fifteen million dollars in damage and looked very much like a dry run for something bigger.

None of the perpetrators were ever caught and if they are indeed plotting something more ambitious, it could be unimaginably destructive.

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, only nine critical substations would have to be disabled to plunge the entire country into darkness for eighteen months or more. Nine. None of which likely have much more security than the San Jose facility.

Even more sobering are the cyberattacks. According to former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, malicious actors probe our systems hundreds of thousands of times a day.

One of the most serious incidents occurred in 2017 when Russian hackers penetrated deep enough to actually take control of parts of our grid. Based on testimony given to Congress by the director of the National Security Agency, a number of our enemies likely already have the ability to put the entire country in the dark.

COVID has given us all a glimpse into the dangers of not being prepared for a crisis. We now have some inkling as to what it would be like to try to survive without the machinery that makes modern society possible.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/terror-bio-attack-nukes-threat-power-grid

The grid going down for more than a few weeks would prove to be hell on earth. With the masses starving, they would do anything to get food. Deliveries of food and every other product would end. Gasoline would soon run out...not sure how long it would last without production? Water would stop flowing from the faucets very quickly. Toilets would start getting backed up by sewage for those on city sewage systems. Some say natural gas would stop flowing, others say it wouldn’t.

In the end, gangs would start invading neighborhoods and taking what they wanted. Hopefully militias would step in to at least protect their own. Don’t see the police holding up as they would naturally want to take care of their own families.

Do you military men know what the military would do?
 
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Do you military men know what the military would do?

Protect the infrastructure and maintain continuity between the Feds and State governments, the NG would patrol the cities. All highways will be shut down, air space, rails would be reserved for emergencies. The longer it goes on the more intrusive the Military will become. The Feds and Military isn't overly concerned with folks out in rural areas as they will be with suburban, city and inter-city.
 
Preppers need to know how to disconnect their main sewer pipe if attached to the public sewage system. They also need either composting toilets or know how and where to dig an Outhouse.

Those of us on our own septic system, it is a Very good time to make sure your system isn’t getting close to capacity!
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Up at my acreage, I am putting in solar for my water supply. I want my water and refrigeration solar powered.. It wont hold up on an EMP but It should withstand a CME or a virus attack on the grid

Solar in my opinion is always a solid prep! Why do you think it would for a CME, but not EMP? Just curious.
 
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The electronics in a solar set up wont withstand the E1 pulse generated by an EMP. A CME does not generate an E1 component and everything should be fine. The only way to bounce solar system back from an EMP is to have spare components in a Faraday Cage and replace the fried components with new ones. At least that is my understanding from what I have researched. I'm a Civil, not Electrical, EGR LOL... all I know is how to plug something into a wall socket ;)


PS.. best all around discussion of myths and facts I have found on the net = Electromagnetic Pulse - Nuclear EMP - futurescience.com
 
Protect the infrastructure and maintain continuity between the Feds and State governments, the NG would patrol the cities. All highways will be shut down, air space, rails would be reserved for emergencies. The longer it goes on the more intrusive the Military will become. The Feds and Military isn't overly concerned with folks out in rural areas as they will be with suburban, city and inter-city.

Definitely will be the game plan. The danger to the rural areas will be when the military starts to go hungry.
 
The carrington event in the late 1800’s was a CME and it was strong enough to melt telegraph wires and electrocute the operators. I doubt my solar panels would stand a chance.... we can’t prep for everything out there but doing what we can just makes sense. I have always felt that the grid going down would cripple the country faster than anything. This virus did a pretty good job too though.
 
This COVID 19 BS threw me back about a year from my scheduled development up at the acreage, then my dad died in August and that threw me back a little further. Then we have this insurrection crap and the election. 2020 sucks. Anyway just to pass along how I am addressing the water situation up at the acreage, AS I said before I have two ponds. This 66 acre tract is 3 miles down a logging road and 7 mile from the nearest little 5,000 person hamlet. The nearest house is 1.5 miles as the crow flies. Really isolated. I do have grid power on the property though.

I initially got an estimate for drilling a water well - $16K just to drill, case and pack. No pump. What I said cant be printed. Then I realized I had millions of gallons of surface water. I had it tested and it was just a little high in iron and manganese. Everything else was fine. So now I am going to pump the pond water, filter it, treat it (UV) and store it in a couple of large atmospheric tanks. it will be more pure than tap water. I want to solar power the water movement to the tanks, then there will be a separate solar system to pressurize the water from the tanks. I didn't event have to re-invent the wheel, the kits are already pre-packaged. RPS 400 Solar Well Pump Kit.... as an aside, I believe in solar systems being completely off grid, not tied into commercial power.

Anyway, everyone has a different plan, I just cant emphasize enough the benefits of having a pond on your property.... stocked with channel cats too! :)
 
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This COVID 19 BS threw me back about a year from my scheduled development up at the acreage, then my dad died in August and that threw me back a little further. Then we have this insurrection crap and the election. 2020 sucks. Anyway just to pass along how I am addressing the water situation up at the acreage, AS I said before I have two ponds. This 66 acre tract is 3 miles down a logging road and 7 mile from the nearest little 5,000 person hamlet. The nearest house is 1.5 miles as the crow flies. Really isolated. I do have grid power on the property though.

I initially got an estimate for drilling a water well - $16K just to drill, case and pack. No pump. What I said cant be printed. Then I realized I had millions of gallons of surface water. I had it tested and it was just a little high in iron and manganese. Everything else was fine. So now I am going to pump the pond water, filter it, treat it (UV) and store it in a couple of large atmospheric tanks. it will be more pure than tap water. I want to solar power the water movement to the tanks, then there will be a separate solar system to pressurize the water from the tanks. I didn't event have to re-invent the wheel, the kits are already pre-packaged. RPS 400 Solar Well Pump Kit.... as an aside, I believe in solar systems being completely off grid, not tied into commercial power.

Anyway, everyone has a different plan, I just cant emphasize enough the benefits of having a pond on your property.... stocked with channel cats too! :)

Sounds like a great property David! What a find. Have to agree that a pond or more are extremely beneficial. In this modern era, we simply don’t understand how much water we use. Clean water availability is the difference between life and death. Wish we had that many acres. You will have zero problems with pasture and water for needed animals.
 
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This COVID 19 BS threw me back about a year from my scheduled development up at the acreage, then my dad died in August and that threw me back a little further. Then we have this insurrection crap and the election. 2020 sucks.
So you should have a full appreciation of the "Ancient Chinese Curse": May you live in interesting times!
 
The one thing I will say is that unlike what happened in February of 2020 with below zero weather, 110 degree heat is not out of the ordinary for Texas. Our grid infrastructure is built to deal with that much better than the extreme cold.

I will be surprised if we experience any real disruption in power supply.
 
Something seemed off about that lower red area. Right in the middle of it is the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant with the most powerful reactor in the US.
"MISO" is an organization responsible for distributing power from various energy companies in its territory (all the red areas) to where it's needed. So it's not that there won't be enough power generated in the lower red area, it's that the power generated in the upper red area won't be enough for the entire MISO region. In other words, power from Grand Gulf will be sent north to offset shortages there, but it won't be enough.
Grand Gulf was built at great expense by Entergy Corporation (and at great expense to their customers who had to pay higher electricity prices for years until it went online) to ensure that Entergy customers had sufficient future power. But now that power gets sent to areas that didn't plan for future needs.
 

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