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

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

That outage sounds like what you want, then. I can remember the coverage on that one, both from news sources and what trickled down the grapevine (my mom has relatives in that area, although I was away at college so news was filtered before it got to me).

Keep in mind that small outages can coincide with large ones, so you can knock out an extra grid beyond what would be affected that way.

Oh, and after 2003 I think they were supposed to take steps to prevent the "domino effect" from knocking that much of an area out again.

All emergency services have backup generators. All hospitals and most schools have something, although the schools may only have backup for "necessary" services: ie, in school, the generator could keep power to the lights in the halls, but not to the classrooms, since many classrooms have windows. This would allow people to exit the building safely without scrambling for flashlights. Many commerical buildings have this same type of power: my store has a backup generator for the registers, the cooler, the security system, and the main computer, but not for the lights (we have windows), the deli counter (food has to be removed and placed in the main cooler during a power outage), or anything else. (Although our generator is not hooked up normally; we call the manager, and if power can't be restored quickly, someone from the company comes to hook the generator up.) My local Wal-mart seems to work on the same principle: I've been during a power outage, and the registers in the front worked, but there were no lights (my Walmart has skylights instead), the doors were propped open since they didn't run on their own, and none of the registers but the front ones worked. I would assume a bank or other security-concious organization would have a generator for the alarm system, but if not, the system going out would alert the company managing it to send the police to guard the bank.

In large cities, most grocery stores are probably going to have generators, since people automatically swarm the stores for staple food items. In the country, I think it's common to keep more food on hand at one time, since going to the stores takes more time and gas. But really, you can probably vary things the way you want; any store not having grocery items can and possibly will go out of power, any store with could only have enough to run the cooler and therefore close anyway; conversely, either one *could* have a backup generator (although a store selling something non-essential probably won't have many customers). The only real mandates are that emergency services, particularly hospitals, will have backup power for at least the more necessary of services (ie, life support, minimal lighting, emergency wards, vital-signs monitors, etc).

There is no single electric utility for the entire USA. However, some utilities manage larger sections than others.