US Power Grid

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

I was watching the history channel the other day and I don't remember what the show was called but they referenced the United States Power grid. Well here's what's got me worried..............DID YOU KNOW THAT IT'S DIVIDED UP INTO ONLY THREE SECTIONS?

Yup, east, west and Texas. So when the grid takes a shit it's going to really take a shit. I just thought it was noteworthy.........

[Daca102090]

And part of those east and west distribution networks stretch up into Canada as well so much larger than just the U.S.

[helomech]

glad Texas has its own

[realist]

You are right only three. Texas is its own grid so the rest of the US is really divided in two. There have been some interesting write ups on it. No one seems to be concerned, "Nothing to see her keep moving". Now for me it is more like clicking my heels and saying there is no place like home three times. Well at least we have our health care.........

[Vodin]

Yeap things in the US are becoming questionable. But that was the plan all the time right?

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

glad Texas has its own

Lucky bastards.............

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You are right only three. Texas is its own grid so the rest of the US is really divided in two. There have been some interesting write ups on it. No one seems to be concerned, "Nothing to see her keep moving". Now for me it is more like clicking my heels and saying there is no place like home three times. Well at least we have our health care.........

You're killing me Smalls!

[LUNCHBOX]

glad Texas has its own

That just means more visitors to Texas if the lights go off east or west.

[Stormfeather]

If theres a EMP, grid goes down, doesnt matter the state, just saying...

[Kesephist]

Yes, either a solar event, or some dimwit pops high altitude nukes in the right places.. EMP.

I recall reading the book WARDAY, which described a ridiculously optomistic nuclear exchange. Most of this country lost its electrical capabilites owing to six high altitude nukes being set off, which sounds about right.

(Mind you, this book was about as blatant a piece of pro-California propaganda as you could ever hope to avoid; the continental strikes in the exchange took out the Dakotas, Wyoming, San Antonio, Omaha, DC and New York City. Nothing happened to California... riiiiiight)

The nastier, more insidious variant of dropping the grid, so far as I've seen in fiction, is cybernetically. Computerized switching being hacked. Put too much of a load HERE, disable safety devices THERE, stir, you get large scale blackouts... or worse, if the overload is big enough. The 'Net doesn't fry, it starves.

Local power can get restored as long as the fuel to feed the generators holds out... and these facilities will be fought over, from a county sized hydro plant, all the way down to some poor farmer with a 100 gallon tank on his truck feeding a 3k generator to keep his chickens unfrozen during the winter.

The moves to a unified national power grid are totalitarian, expensive, and just plain STUPID. Ditto utilities offering things like 'smart' thermostats and outlets.

Was me and had my own means of power, I'd still stay on the grid, with spares of all my electronics in tightly lidded galvanized garbage cans, with 2 gauge jumper cables clamped to the lid and a central ground. I'd also have a old fashioned big switch to swap over from line to local generation. (No computerized switch there) , so:



Electricity as an everyday thing in the existance of mankind has only been so in the last 150-odd years. All of us have, I'm willing to wager, a grandparent or great grandparent who did their day to day without it. The Amish seem to be doing well lacking it.

My .0005 tr oz Ag.

Kesephist

KI7CIL

[realist]

Hey, Hey we in California are special people so nothing will ever happen bad out here. Everyone says California will have an earthquake and fall into the ocean we I think it will be the rest of the US that will fall into the Atlantic.........so there....... We ride in special small buses with our special helmets. Life is good what possibly could happen.............skip, skip skip what a wonderful sunset..............