Synopsis

The film outlines the risk and consequences of the US power grid going down, leaving the nation without electricity for an extended period of time. An extended outage where there's no electricity for the entire nation could kill up to 90% of Americas' population. This estimate came from the highly credentialed EMP Commission which operated at the behest of the US Congress for more than seventeen years.The film begins with Dennis Quaid saying he believes in this project and how the film will eventually get to a happy ending. Legendary comedian George Carlin, lays out how the nation is 'SoL' and 'JwF'd' if the power goes out for an extended period of time. It is explained how there's a major difference between a shorter term outage and a longer term 'Grid Down' scenario that could kill up to 90% of the country's population. The 2021 short term power outage in Texas is explained with note that the state's grid was 4.37 minutes away from a potential extended state-wide blackout.Then, the 'Power Grid' is explained. There are more than 3000 companies involved with the Grid, both public and private. There are three elements to the grid: 1) Generation. 2) Transmission 3) Distribution. There are three distinct grids in the US: 1) Eastern grid 2) Western grid. 3) Texas grid. The backbone and critical infrastructure of the grid is the power substation, which includes transformers. If multiple transformers become inoperable, the entire grid can go 'down' for an extended period of time. These transformers are massive and are manufactured overseas and require long lead times for replacement. A major vulnerability is the fact that many transformers have been manufactured in China.The major four threat vectors covered include: 1) Physical attack 2) Cyber attack 3) Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack 4) Geomagnetic disturbance (GMD) , otherwise known as Coronal Mass Ejection These four threats are covered in some detail. For the (1) Physical attack threat vector, a 2021 60 Minutes segment was mentioned whereby a FERC study was mentioned whereby less than twenty substations being taken down could create a 'coast to coast' blackout.It explains how the major electrical providers are regulated and how there's essentially been 'regulatory capture' of the industry. Each party wants to claim that grid protection isn't their specific responsibility, it belongs to someone else. It's explained how there is protective equipment available that can protect our transformers and substations from attack, both from adversaries or from the sun. Several utilities are mentioned that are giving much further than most in seeking better protection of their infrastructure. Viewers are informed that this entire vulnerability can be fixed if regulators and legislators take action and they do their job, so they must hold these officials accountable by contacting them immediately by utilizing 'action tools' available on the website. Several local initiatives are mentioned that are having some success and viewers are urged to contact their local officials as well as state and federal officials. The viewers are called on to take action now and the film ends with a patriotic review of history exemplifying how we can fix this horrific problem.

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Oct 4, 2023 at 06:34 PM