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I'm a big proponent of the DOE's suggestion for a national strategic transformer reserve. They estimate $500mil (2017) would cover buying enough redundant tran

I'm a big proponent of the DOE's suggestion for a national strategic transformer reserve. They estimate $500mil (2017) would cover buying enough redundant transformers to resuscitate the power grid after a nationwide failure. Pre-covid, the typical lead time for a full scale transformer was ~2 years. I'm assuming it would take even longer now. I can't imagine how long it would take to replace our transformers if ~1/4 of the world also needed to do the same. In my opinion, the reserve is cheap at 3x the price. $500mil is 7 F35 raptors, and we are buying ~130/year at this point. There are plenty of defense spending justifications for establishing the reserve - it would protect against EMPs and small targeted attacks. We are already seeing small arms attacks on high energy transformers, and last year someone tried to use a drone to take out a substation. Not surprisingly, the biggest hurdles identified in the report were the needed land acquisitions and the logistics of transporting the large transformers. https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/04/f34/Strategic%20Transformer%20Reserve%20Report%20-%20FINAL.pdf https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/04/f34/Strategic%20... https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R43604.html https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R43604.html https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43015/likely-drone-attack-on-u-s-power-grid-revealed-in-new-intelligence-report https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43015/likely-drone-att...

toss1 5y ago
THIS!! Having a full set of spares requires zero re-engineering of the existing grid, and will turn a multi-year grid failure catastrophe into a few days to restore critical components and some weeks of restoring full function. Since our solid solar observation capabilities now give several days notice before arrival of such storms, some could even be pre-positioned at critical substations. And you are absolutely correct that the DOD would have very good reason to do this - losing the grid nationwide would be an insane level national security risk.
- Fatnino 5y ago
  Why not just disconnect the working ones at the same time and then they don't get fried
  - toss1 5y ago
    That could definitely help. However, while I don't have the numbers, I'd expect that the required labor to disconnect them all would vastly exceed the 24-72 hour warning time. Also, this would mean proactively shutting down the entire grid for days, at the first warning, then requiring days to restore power. So one warning would require a full week of zero power for the continent, and (I expect) saving only part of the grid. But yeah, putting in some planning to do that would be a smart idea.
  - bcrl 5y ago
    Part of the challenge is that transformers for individual homes are at risk. Throw a significant DC voltage across a transformer designed to handle 60 Hz AC, and the results are not going to be pretty.

toss1 5y ago

THIS!! Having a full set of spares requires zero re-engineering of the existing grid, and will turn a multi-year grid failure catastrophe into a few days to restore critical components and some weeks of restoring full function. Since our solid solar observation capabilities now give several days notice before arrival of such storms, some could even be pre-positioned at critical substations. And you are absolutely correct that the DOD would have very good reason to do this - losing the grid nationwide would be an insane level national security risk.

Fatnino 5y ago
Why not just disconnect the working ones at the same time and then they don't get fried
- toss1 5y ago
  That could definitely help. However, while I don't have the numbers, I'd expect that the required labor to disconnect them all would vastly exceed the 24-72 hour warning time. Also, this would mean proactively shutting down the entire grid for days, at the first warning, then requiring days to restore power. So one warning would require a full week of zero power for the continent, and (I expect) saving only part of the grid. But yeah, putting in some planning to do that would be a smart idea.
- bcrl 5y ago
  Part of the challenge is that transformers for individual homes are at risk. Throw a significant DC voltage across a transformer designed to handle 60 Hz AC, and the results are not going to be pretty.