Project Hydra: Keeping Power Out of the Hands of Terrorists

System

The NYC electrical grid already is being strained by the escalating power demands from plasma TVs, and the coming wave of hybrid and electric plug-in cars will only add to demands on the city.

The closer the grid gets to hitting capacity and buckling from consumer demand, the more and more vulnerable it becomes to natural disasters and terrorist attacks causing blackouts, rolling outages and cascading failures.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,364104,00.html

Serious stuff.

Wayne

mike95490

Re: Project Hydra: Keeping Power Out of the Hands of Terrorists

Any system, when overloaded, by definition, has lost it's resiliency.

When people need a news report to tell them that, they are too far gone to save.

I'm curious how well that supercooled, super conductor cable is going to work out. I think they are trading one vapor cloud (steam) for another (LN2) and when that pipe splits, freezing the water and sewer lines, and then the electrical goes up & out, for lack of cold, what a mess.

And the blackmail threats against power plants that have their computers on the net, are real, have happened, and blackouts occurred.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/09/2256241
&
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/19/0138209
"We have information that cyberattacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States. In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet."

Cariboocoot

Re: Project Hydra: Keeping Power Out of the Hands of Terrorists

My brother-in-law is a key player in the design of the control systems for most of NA's power grid. He has for decades warned politicians and power companies alike about their standard practice of not updating infrastructure until it catastrophically fails. Most power outages are caused by the grid equivalent of plugging far too many things into one outlet and turning it all on at once. This has happened several times in the past, but still they do not learn. Who needs terrorists when mismanagement will suffice?

BTW, Plasma TV's don't really draw much. But there are more and more larger screen TV's every year, and that total draw is no doubt exceeding that of the old days when sets were full of vacuum tubes!

We probably don't have to worry about people plugging in their electric cars anytime soon either.