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Page added on August 29, 2013
Power Grid Down Drill To Be Conducted By US Government
Power grid vulnerabilities are finally garnering some attention by government officials.
An electrical grid joint drill simulation is being planned in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Thousands of utility workers, FBI agents, anti-terrorism experts, governmental agencies, and more than 150 private businesses are involved in the November power grid drill.
The downed power grid simulation will reportedly focus on both physical and cyber attacks. The antiquated electrical system in the United States has been one of the most neglected pieces of integral infrastructure.
The EMP Commission, created by Congress, released a report in 2008 calling for increased planning and testing, and a stockpiling of needed repair items.
The SHIELD Act, which is stalled in Congress, is the first serious piece of legislation in many years to attempt to address the vulnerabilities of the power grid in. As previously reported by Off The Grid News, a recent American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) report gave the power grid a “D+” when grading various pieces of infrastructure and public services in the United States.
The disaster drill is being described as a crisis practice unlike anything the real power grid has ever experienced. The GridEX II drill Nov. 13-14 will focus primarily on how governments will react if the electrical grid fails and, for instance, the food supply chain collapses.
American utility companies are responsible for running approximately 5,800 power plants and about 450,000 high-voltage transmission lines, controlled by various devices which have been put into place over the past decades. Some of the utility companies which oversee the power grid reportedly use “antique computer protocols” which are “probably” safe from cyber hackers,” The New York Times reported.
The Times said experts call the power grid the nation’s “glass jaw.” Even the military gets 99 percent of its power the same way everyday citizens get it – from commercially run companies.
Harness the power of the sun when the power goes out…
“If an adversary lands a knockout blow, [experts] fear, it could black out vast areas of the continent for weeks; interrupt supplies of water, gasoline, diesel fuel and fresh food; shut down communications; and create disruptions of a scale that was only hinted at by Hurricane Sandy and the attacks of Sept. 11,” The Times said.
Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Curt Hebert stated that if the nation fails at electricity, “we’re going to fail miserably” at everything else.
Hebert also noted that during prior power grid drills, the scenario assumed the system would be up and running again relatively quickly after an attack. This drill will assume it’s out much longer.
If the power grid fails, a lack of electricity and food delivery are only the first wave of troubles facing the American people. Police could face major problems with civil unrest. Of course, there also would not be any electric heating or cooling, which easily could lead to many deaths depending on the season.
A 2012 report by the National Academy of Science said terrorists could cripple the nation by damaging or destroying hard-to-replace components, some of which aren’t even made in the United States.
“Of particular concern are giant custom-built transformers that increase the voltage of electricity to levels suited for bulk transmission and then reduce voltage for distribution to customers,” The Times said in a summary of the report. “… Replacing them can take many months.”
Said Clark W. Gellings, a researcher at the Electric Power Research Institute, “I don’t think we pay quite enough attention to the technology fixes that would allow us to make the power system more resilient.”
10 Comments on "Power Grid Down Drill To Be Conducted By US Government"
DC on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 8:17 am
Actually, the US gets plenty of grid power down practice. They are caused by stiff winds, rain and the odd tornado or twenty. How many time has the grid gone down to ‘terrorists’ or ‘cyber-hackers’?
Lets see, uhhh…none.
The Us of Coal should invest in a better way string wires than semi-rotted wood poles, and worry less about non-existent terrorists and chinese ‘hackers’.
curlyq3 on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 10:57 am
Right on DC … and when everyone bites their fingernails in the heat of summer worried about the afternoon peak demand blowing the grid sky high when all the AC units come on ! … We could have solved this problem years ago by grid-tied battery/inverter systems used during peak demand hours (recharge systems during off peak so load remains balanced) … curlyq3
TIKIMAN on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 11:58 am
The drill Americans need to practice is buying AMMO, FOOD and WATER.
If power was out for a large section of the population for more than 72 hours people will start to lose their minds.
After 96 hours cell phone service will disappear as the generators cell phone companies have start running out of fuel.
Can you imagine the full grid going down for just 1 day across the US? It would be Armegeddon.
SteveO on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 12:53 pm
Tikiman – “If power was out for a large section of the population for more than 72 hours people will start to lose their minds.”
There are parts of the eastern US that have already practiced being without power for more than 72 hours. Northern NJ after Sandy. WV and parts of the surrounding states were down after the 2012 Derecho wind event. New England has had a number of ice storms that produced regional blackouts longer than 3 days.
GregT on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 2:10 pm
Americans are not the only ones that should be concerned with power grid failure. All people, worldwide, that rely on electricity for their survival, should be very concerned.
Coronal mass ejections, like the Carrington event of 1859, can happen at any time. They have happened before, and they WILL happen again.
Electric power is a nicety, not a necessity. It would be very prudent to plan accordingly.
Eams on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 3:14 pm
This just reeks of a false-flag attack.
GregT on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 4:04 pm
No false flag attack needed. The ‘grid’ will be taken out. It is only a matter of time.
We are not in control of nature, nature is in control of us. The sooner we grow up, and figure this out, the less the consequences of our ignorance will be.
bobinget on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 5:39 pm
WHEN you decide to ‘go solar’, remember, your “Grid Tie’ goes down in a nano second because of safety concerns. Unless you have a battery bank, you will need a generator for power.
Make sure you understand circuitry in your grid tie system. Post inspection and certification, have a qualified techie install a bypass so that you can still access those thousands of KWs of daylight power and still NOT feed back into the grid.
sparky on Thu, 29th Aug 2013 11:40 pm
.
Finally !!
the whole of the U.S could be taken down by half a dozen judicious coordinated blowing of some high voltage pylons .
BillT on Fri, 30th Aug 2013 1:51 am
If it is caused by a solar flare, all electronics will be fried, including home solar systems. And eventually the main grid WILL go down under load, hacking or Mother Nature. Be patient.
When it does,, it may never come back up. Those huge transformers (thousands of them) are mostly one of a kind and would require months to replace. Maybe years or never and they come from other countries who may be having similar problems. Our electrical ‘civilization’ could disappear in the blink of an eye. Are you prepared?