Seems as if there is a countywide power cut since this am in the above countries, no trains, no petrol as no power to fuel pumps, people stuck in lifts and lots more hassle.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-48652686

How long before it happens here, a few days after the announcement that a huge power station in Warrington is due to close, putting more demand on ageing infrastructure.

I saw this on BBC news too. I blame the Russians

How long before it happens here? Probably sooner than you think.

No idea how any of this works but find it amazing that this is possible without intentional external influence. Is a foreign power suspected in this or just a terribly designed system with single point of failures etc?

The Perons have left a number of boobytraps for the relatively new Argentine president, a dodgy power system could be one of them.

No idea how any of this works but find it amazing that this is possible without intentional external influence. Is a foreign power suspected in this or just a terribly designed system with single point of failures etc?

Mechanical failure with a degree of human error doesn’t seem that implausible to me. Remember when New York lost power some years ago?

I’m going to guess at a cascade failure; kit down for maintenance/fault so extended or unusual feeding with loss of diversity, introducing critical points of failure.  I bet it’s an old, tired, poorly maintained network as Argentina has had a very sorry economy for many years and this sort of state capital plant renewal expenditure has probably been put on the back burner.  Then a fault or switching error causes an overload and this cascades through the system causing further damage.

If it has blown a super grid transformer or switch gear, this stuff isn’t readily available in your local electrical distributor (think years to get built) and if you do actually have a spare you can bet the several hundred tonne bit of kit is at the other end of the country from where you need it.

It wouldn’t be a big surprise to see this happening in North America. They don’t have a National Grid like we do, being fed from a whole variety of distributed sources, they have dozens, if not hundreds, of small providers, spread across all the different states, and the infrastructure, just like their road and rail, is very poorly maintained. Just look at the series of catastrophic fires in California recently, several of which have been directly attributed to one provider who haven’t bothered to maintain lines and clear nearby and overhanging timber.
Any time there are warnings of major solar flares and other solar outbursts there are warnings of threats to North American and Canadian power supplies with brownouts or worse.

I saw this on BBC news too. I blame the Russians Chinese

Quietly cause the failure of one strategic piece of equipment, then pitch up with an offer to rebuild the nation’s defunct infrastructure at an agreeable rate to all parties…

How long before it happens here? Probably sooner than you think.

Doubt it, for reasons stated above. We’re no longer having to rely on coal for our electricity.

Have the US blamed Iran yet?

How long before it happens here? Probably sooner than you think

Doubt it,

Really? Have a read of this then:

Dragonfly: How Britain’s energy sector was hacked

Why all the excitement? African countries like Nigeria have been experiencing this for decades. Lagos has a population of 18 million but generating capacity for 500,000 people. You’ll get a couple of hours of public electricity a week if you’re lucky; the rest of the time you’re burning diesel in your gen.

brownouts or worse.

shiiiiit

No idea how any of this works but find it amazing that this is possible without intentional external influence.

At a guess:

Old infrastructure
Poorly designed infrastructure
Lack of investment
Big and sparsely populated country

African countries like Nigeria have been experiencing this for decades. Lagos has a population of 18 million but generating capacity for 500,000 people. You’ll get a couple of hours of public electricity a week if you’re lucky; the rest of the time you’re burning diesel in your gen.

You’ve answered your own question. People in Nigeria are expecting it and therefore have their own gennies or can simply do without. I don’t have a generator, and if I did like most Brits I’d have no means of fuelling it without electrically powered filling stations.

How long before it happens here? Probably sooner than you think.

Yep.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/17/britain-four-meals-away-anarchy-cyber-attack-takes-power-grid/

There was a similarly alarmist drama-documentary a few years ago stating more or less the same. It’s just that, as per the Telegraph link, no-one expects it so no-one has prepared for it and very very few people have the skills, ability and wherewithal to go wild and fend for themselves in some remote area of Scotland until the situation is stabilised.

There seem to be two themes here, one being power loss through hacking, the other being through poorly maintained infrastructure, which appears to be the case in Argentina.
Hacking by state actors is a whole other issue.

CountZero

Member

Any time there are warnings of major solar flares and other solar outbursts there are warnings of threats to North American and Canadian power supplies with brownouts or worse.

Course, California’s biggest energy crisis was caused by an even more dangerous force of nature, greedy humans… And market deregulation.

crazy-legs

Subscriber

There was a similarly alarmist drama-documentary a few years ago stating more or less the same. It’s just that, as per the Telegraph link, no-one expects it so no-one has prepared for it

It’s basically like heavy snow. Every time we get it, the place goes mental but only because it happens rarely enough that it’s not worth the expenditure and impact of making everything snowproof.

In this case, who knows what the actual likelihood is, but removing the risk would be very, very hard- you either need absolutely bombproof (literally) infrastructure, failsofts, or mass redundancy and none of those things comes for cheap. IIRC we’re also pretty short on black start capacity these days.