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patchinthebox t1_itnkgru wrote

Reply to comment by EscapeRich9091 in eli5: how long would power stay on if the power company abandoned their post? by larsattacks94

I work at a power plant and this is very accurate.

>Brownouts would progress rapidly to full blackouts within a day or even hours as Grid demand far outstrips the supply,

We'd be in a total blackout situation within the first 24 hours for sure. A few units would trip and the others would quickly be overwhelmed due to no actions happening and a cascading blackout would occur. Once units trip they're not coming back for a long time.

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bandanagirl95 t1_itonk08 wrote

I wouldn't even bet on it surviving for 12 hours. Too much supply will destroy some units just as easily as too much demand, and the daily shift in power usage can do that either way.

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calladus t1_itozs5y wrote

What if the load wasn't as bad. Say, almost everyone died?

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SnooFloofs3486 t1_itp05ai wrote

The system would still fail very quickly. Components are designed to trip off line anytime the power is to far out of balance. And most at the utility level don't automatically come back online.

If you want power when the grid is down, solar and battery is the best bet.

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Aporkalypse_Sow t1_itp2nku wrote

The amount of stuff that's automatically set to turn on is insane enough of a power draw.

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