Power Outages

[timecanwait.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to go about researching this without getting on a terrorist watch list, haha.

I'm trying to write a mass power outage into my story.  But I need to know:

• Would outages happen on a city by city basis, or could something happen to make an entire state lose electricity?
• If said outage were to happen, what could cause it?
• I'm sure this depends on the cause of the outage, but worst case scenario, how long would people be without power?
• What types of buildings have backup generators to insure they will still have power in case of emergency?  Hospitals and jails, I'm sure, but what else?  Would a bank have a backup generator to keep the alarms going and the safe locked if the power's out?

The story is taking place in the USA.  I Googled "National Grid USA" and found that there's a company by that name that manages just a few states.  So am I correct in assuming there is no large-scale utility authority that manages the entire country?  That's fine, it just makes my job harder, because I will have to write in several smaller outages instead of just POOFing everyone's electricity, haha.

Comments

[nyxgoldstone.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest, I'm no expert, but I do remember a few things.

Outages happen on a grid-to-grid basis. Depending on the size of the city, a power grid could be a whole city, or a few blocks. I remember having outages in Montebello, CA (average drive time from one end of the city border to the other would be about 15-20 minutes) where my parents' place would be out and my grandma across the street still had power.

A mass power outage that would span a whole city if not more? The surest way of that happening is a malfunction in the power plant itself, I'd think.

Brown-outs used to last a few hours in the LA area. I think the longest I've experienced an actual power outage is 24 hours, roughly.

Hospitals and jails, yes, definitely. I actually can't be sure about banks. If the power's out, there wouldn't BE an alarm system to go off, I'd think, unless they thought of the backup generator idea. The power plant itself might also have one to get the computer systems up and running to FIX whatever caused an outage. Police and fire departments probably have one. Any government buildings would probably have one, too.

Again, I'm no expert. My knowledge is based off questions I'd ask when things happened and what I remember of the answers. Everything beyond that is just me applying logic LoL

[timecanwait.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the help :) True, I'm sure the power plant has some major backup! I never pictured I'd be writing crimes into my story, but maaaaan, power outages are just ripe with opportunity!

[nyxgoldstone.livejournal.com]

No kidding! When you asked, I was thinking "Huh... I wonder what he wants a power outage for? Hmm... Banks...? OH!!! So much possibility!"