Our electrical grid is an accident waiting to happen.
In recent months, we’ve been told some things that patriots like us have long suspected. A report has recently been declassified that reveals that due to the U.S. electric grid’s old technology, lack of spare capacity and incapability of keeping pace with the increasing burden being placed upon it, the grid is vulnerable to a sophisticated physical assault that could produce catastrophic results.
Everyone has known for many years that the grid is vulnerable to extreme weather, including intense heat in the South, tornados in the heartland, hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and blizzards in the Northeast. I can’t remember the last time a month passed without a serious power outage occurring due to the weather.
Now we’re starting to learn a little more about why the grid is vulnerable to cyber attacks. As our power generation systems become more complex, they become more reliable. But at the same time, they become more vulnerable because as the design becomes more complex, the interactions between the components start to dominate the overall design.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article titled, “Hacking the Grid ‘Is Very Easy.” The article points out that while the systems used to control industrial equipment such as turbines and other power-generation gear are supposed to be offline, they are actually often connected to the Internet and therefore exposed to cyber attacks. Meet you on the other side.
Reading this, you can see that computer security firm Mandiant Corporation blames China for a high percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government. Of course, China blames the U.S. for a vast majority of attacks on its computer systems.
As individuals, we know that the best way to become independent of the electrical grid is to power our homes with solar and wind energy. But the country still needs a reliable electrical grid. What do you believe the U.S. response should be to an electrical grid that is so old and so vulnerable? Fixing it would be very expensive, but wouldn’t those costs be worth it compared to the costs of repeated power outages? Please let me know what you think about this.
It’s going to happen. I am a retired Electrican. I can see that in the future the grid will fail due to lack of maintenance or a terrorist attack. It would be very easy to sabotage the grid resulting in a blackout that could last years. Be ready plan ahead.
I GOT A FRIEND WHO WORKS FOR DOE WHO STATED TWO OF THE EIGHT REACTORS IN NORTH AMERICA ARE IN FACT LEAKING RADIATION BUT NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT IT
in 1973 CSX railroad did a test of how long would it take for employees to find a power shut down problem on the signal system controlling train movement, after 2 days of working round the clock, we were told to stop looking, they turned it back on. — 2 weeks later we were told power would be cut off and for us to do nothing. Power stayed off 6 hours. This test was from Va to Fla for the entire RR system. We were told this was a test to see if electrical power and communications (phones) could be turn off and on at any time for east coast. It worked very good. Now this applies to internet also
I’m still looking for the idea that was published a couple of years ago but I didn’t understand at the time.
It was a small electric current gathering electricity from the air device. I remember it used copper wiring and diodes in a square form where one end was a copper wire, the length of which determined how much electricity was gathered from the air. It could then be stored in batteries.
I didn’t know what a diode was then, so didn’t save it.
Do you have any ideas on this? It was simple, and inexpensive to build.
I read and save your articles on a regular basis. It’s one of my favorite sites for this matter.
Thanks,
Catherine
I recall seeing the same video, I think on Youtube. The author built the “antenna”, hooked it up to a cell phone, which it then began charging. As I recall, the concept was based on Nicola Tesla’s theories, but other than searching Youtube, I couldn’t tell you where to look. Good luck!
Currently working for a IOU (invester Owned utility) our system is now 100% automated meters with a 99.85% reliable read rate. Yes, eventually the utility has the right to refuse power to you if you don’t want the meter. We will move the meter away from your house to a another pole, at your expense, but no more analog/digital meter will be used that have to be read manually. Deep in the south our system is part of a regional transmission system which greatly protects the system overloads and attacks. If the commissions allow for cost recovery of upgrades the customers will be more protected. This is for regulated systems, the others are usually cost strapped and won’t upgrade. Electricity in the US is still the best buy out there and the most reliable. If you feel you may at some point lose power ask Frank on how to be prepared in these scenarios.
wind turbines. in california the desert along the way to palm springs has over 200 wind turbines. who gets the power is beyond me. theres kits out on the internet that you can build your own free electrcity. depending on how big you bulid it and the right transformer, you can run your whole house on it. check the internet for free energy dependance.
As the cost of power increases and the cost of solar panels decreases, at some point there is a “crossover” where you can justify going off-grid and building your own plant. One farmer discovered it was in his case because he could spend about $5,000 to install solar panels that would handle what his place uses, or he could pay the electric company $3,000 to run a line exclusively out to his place (which was very remote) and then pay electric bills every month. The only difference was that he’d have to replace his system about every twenty years. In twenty years he’d definitely save enough that if he put aside the money he’s not paying in electric bills, in about six or seven years the system would pay for itself, and after that it’s free power for the next 13 years. So if he banked or invested some of the money he’s not paying in electric bills, when the panels and such needed to be replaced in 20 years he wouldn’t need to finance them, he could buy them directly. And like computers, as the technology gets better it tends to drop in price or the price stays roughly the same but what it can do increases (you would get more power from the same number of cells, so you have potential if you stay on grid that you can end up running your meter backward and selling power to the electric company or possibly storing it long term through extra batteries or possibly molten salt) if you’re not on grid.
Standby my friends the world of electrical generation is about to change. The latest technology (and completely within the “green energy” field, i.e., no carbon footprint) can produce electricity 24/7/365 inexpensively and separate from the grid that (in the future…perhaps a couple of decades) will be, technically, an outmoded system.
What a lot of places – like computer facilities – where they don’t have the space to put up enough panels on the building to run it off-grid (or it isn’t their building so they can’t), they’ll put in a generator to provide emergency power, and they’ll add a flywheel for a few thousand dollars that supplies the 8 to 10 seconds of power it takes for the standby generator to kick in. A slower (8 to 10 second startup) standby generator and a stopgap flywheel is much cheaper than an inline power system designed to provide continuous regulated power, A telephone company would use the inline system because they must maintain ‘four nines’ or typically 99.97% reliability whereas most houses can get buy with a standby generator alone and live with an 8 second blackout.
Am waiting on my packet from power4patriots. Got the upgrade. So, hopefully it covers all aspects of the installation from start to finish.
And, answers to questions along the way.
I work for an electric utility and can attest that the grid is a house of cards. I work at a nuclear power plant and was working during the blackout in the NE states back in 2003. The deregulated electric in the NE led to a situation in which any electric company could sell to any consumer in any state. There were all sorts of power brokers selling electricity, but the downside was that when deregulation started, no thought was given to upkeep of the distribution system. It took a branch of a tree falling across some lines to cause several states and parts of Canada to be without power.
On a slightly related note, if there ever is a large scale loss of the power grid that is going to last for a while (weeks), it might be a grand idea to move away from your neighborhood nuclear plant. All nuclear plants are designed with diesel backup power for emergency systems, but there is only a limited amount of diesel fuel stored on site….generally only for 7 days of continuous operation. This presents several interesting scenarios: They can get more diesel fuel (which may be difficult with no power anywhere), they can get the power grid restored (which may or may not be possible), or the plant can start really falling apart. Look at Fukushima Daiichi. Their fuel oil was contaminated with seawater and was unusable. They had no way to get more. The subsequent boiling of the water in the core and the fuel storage areas built up hydrogen in explosive amounts. A very similar result could happen at any of the 104 reactors in the US in the event of a loss of the power grid for a long period.
Joel above says he works at a “nuclear power plant” but chances are, his utility would say he works at a “steam electric station” which is industry-speak for “nuclear power plant” because that phrase bothers people. But he’s right, it’s now an “open secret” that the public power grid is a disaster waiting to happen because the beancounters got in the way and decided that if we hadn’t had problems we can allow deferred maintenance, the same thing that happened when highway trust funds (collected from fuel taxes) were absorbed into state general funds (to allow politicians either to overspend and not raise taxes to pay for their pyramid building) instead. The grid is not being properly maintained and upgraded to handle new demands, and as a result it keeps failing. There are three power grids in the United States: East, West, and State of Texas. And I think the last one is the only one being maintained properly (and I’m not even sure about that). You compare that to the grid of rail networks, where railroads know they have to have continuous maintenance, which is why American railroads spend a combined $20 billion a year to do exactly that.
Your c.d. had a lot of easy to follow information for building solar panels and the wind generator.
What I am missing is the follow-up how to connect to the battery bank and where to buy the batteries and what kind of batteries you recommand.
Although the information about planning, calculation, tools safety rules are a waste of time.
People who want to build their own are mostly skilled and not as dum as you deccribe them.
But, this is a good place to start.
Thank you.
Mr. Frank i compleaty agree . im not a colage graged but i can see that we need to do things to help our selfs and the country needs to do things to help us . and yes the cost would be worth it if it helps . im planging to do my part im starting now . i just joined power for pait, but i thank god for you all offering this to outhers that are having trouble making it , and also conserend about thair futiour , my pray is every one will help thair selves and pray for our country that they will do the wright thing for us , thank you and god bless.
same goes here. there is a monopoly here and there is no other way to get power unless you go through one company. there are no others for hundreds of miles. i thought this was against the constitution.
Electric Grids are built and (allegedly) maintained by private companies. Because of deregulation it is possible for a competitive provider of electricity to build their own grid the way a competitive phone company or competitive cable company could come into an area and build out their own system. But typically when you have expensive infrastructure building other companies don’t like to do it when there is an existing one in place. Back in the 1960s through 1980s Los Angeles was one of the few places that did not issue an exclusive cable franchise, anyone who got a franchise could operate anywhere in the city. Yet you find of the 11 providers, not a single one of them built a foot of coax in any area once one of their competitors had done so. No collusion or agreements, just a decision that they did not want to compete because when you have competition the price goes down and customers benefit. There is still money to be made there, but it means you have to put in more work than a single provider. (I didn’t say “monopoly” because it isn’t; these cable companies have short-sidedly decided not to build competitively and thus risk becoming commodity providers where people can choose who to get service from.
And electric utilities have done the same thing.
I would like to know if I can send correspondence “Notice of No Consent to Trespass, Notice of No Consent to Surveillance, Notice of Liability” to my electric company without the threat of them refusing me power to my home. You see, we have a monopoly here and I’m concerned that if I demand they remove the ‘smart meter’, they will do just that.
Is this something I should be concerned about? Can they actually refuse me power to my home?
Thank you for your time
Yes, they can: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/09/handicapped-woman-refuses-smart-meter-has-power-cut-in-the-dead-of-winter/#
You should understand two things. It’s simply money. With Internet over Power Lines a smart meter can be read automatically and remotely. It can also be shut off remotely. With an analog meter, they have to send someone out to read the meter or to cut power. It means the electric company can further automate their operations by reducing staff to do meter reading (or not have to hire more readers). Also it means they have to replace them less often. A guy who was reading our gas meter back in 1995 where I was living noticed the installation date and made a note saying that they would have to come out in a few weeks to replace the meter, because every 30 years the meter has to be replaced (as it gets old, it tends to favor the customer too much) and eventually it gets too generous, so the utility replaces it). I know this from first-hand experience, I lived in a house with a trick meter, for a six-bedroom house in Maryland, 5 miles outside of Washington, DC the electric bill was a whopping $8 a month. Not $800 a month, eight dollars. Typical bill in that area is around $100 to $250 a month.
But if you want to keep the analog meter you should have that option. In which case, charging you $10 a month to cover the cost for a meter reader to come out is reasonable (vs. the probably 1/2c it costs the electric company to read a “smart” reader remotely.)
You caught my interest, Initially. Then I saw your Obama comment. Let me ask: Was it the “George Bush Electricity Monopoly” or “Nixon Monopoly” or “Clinton Monopoly”?
Then I also saw your “someone to watch over me” pitch and realized that you are just another bull-shit artist playing on the fears of fools like you.
How unfortunate, Frank, that you couldn’t be ernest.
A reply is not necessary nor welcome.
Am looking forward to my shipment-you ,Frank,seem like you know the value of time,energy,money
and know-how and I am glad you are bold enough to do what you are doing-the education system government big business would dare do what you propose!I can speak from personal experiences with CityCollege science dept,and even the vocational wing are so sorely underfunded and resistant to change-I have been branded a radical and as far as I am concerned I am nothing of the sort-
demanding a relevant education that is paid for by EVERYONE is not radical.You my friend,are an heroic fellow American in many peoples’ eyes,Mr.FrankBates!