This high degree of connectiveness in the grid system allows power to be transmitted over long distances, but it also allows local disturbances to propagate across the grid. “There are systems to protect the nodes from overload, such as a controlled shutdown to take a substation out if it overloads or to shut off a generator. In general, these systems do a good job of protecting the nodes,” says Reka Albert. “What this model really looks at is the effect of losing a number of nodes in a short period.” If the nodes are removed randomly, the effect on the system is roughly proportional to the number of generators or substations removed. However, the grid quickly becomes disconnected when the high-load transmission substations are selectively removed from the system–if the nodes that have the highest load are removed first, followed progressively by the nodes with successively lower loads. According to the model, a loss of only 4 percent of the 10,287 transmission substations results in a 60 percent loss of connectivity. During a cascading failure, in which the high-load substations fail in sequence, the model shows that the loss of only 2 percent of the nodes causes a catastrophic failure of the entire system.
The authors point out that this vulnerability is an inherent part of the existing system. If the power grid were highly redundant, however, the loss of a small number of nodes should not cause power loss because the system reroutes through alternative paths. Possible remediation schemes include increased redundancy focused on key substations and transmission lines, or more distributed generation, which would decrease the load on these key points. “Future additions to the system should consider the effect of the new nodes on relieving strain on key nodes,” Albert says. “From this model, we know how defects can propagate through the system, we have identified parts of the system that need to be improved because they are not redundant, and we can show which substations need to be protected from failure in order to avoid widespread system failure. These are considerations that could help guide energy policy decisions.”
This research was funded, in part, by the Midwest Research Institute.
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…wouldn’t this information fall under the Patriot Act and be stuff we wouldn’t want to give any prospective terrorists reading SciScoop?
I wonder how the “environmentalists” generating their own electricity and selling it to their local power company figure in this study.
Just what part of the Patriot Act are you talking about? There’s a lot of scary stuff in there, but nothing as far as I’m aware that enables Ashcroft & Co. to come in and erase unclassified public domain information posted by a private citizen. I seem to recall some little item that says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. Oh yeah, it’s that pesky First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States…
Back in the days when I worked in Oak Ridge and had a Mosler safe in my office literally full of detailed blueprints to every nuclear weapon type in the American arsenal, they preached to us over and over again that security through obscurity wasn’t. I believed them then and I believe them now.
Sure, there’s a time and place to classify information, particularly military information like those blueprints. However, I believe strongly that vulnerabiliies in our social structure should be highlighted for all to see so they may be addressed and strengthened. The 9/11 attack succeeded primarily because of a lack of imagination and insight and introspection on the part of the defenders as to what our enemies could and would do. I go in a local dollar store now and see a three-pack of brightly colored boxcutters in a plastic bag and think to myself, look at the billions and billions of dollars being wasted today because some Islamic guys spent a buck on these. You think we should outlaw three-packs of box cutters in dollar stores?
You know, about once a week nowdays I mull over starting a series of tech-oriented articles called How To Destroy The United States. I have some very imaginative ideas that I fear would actually work even better than boxcutters. We are SO vulnerable it’s scary scary scary and I personally think those vulnerabilities need to be specifically pointed out and addressed. Just because the vast majority of Americans are blissfully ignorant of how they’re going to be sucker-punched next sure doesn’t mean a determined Abdul isn’t going to figure it out and dig up what he needs.
Let me tell you what I fear the most, something that I see happening right now that is the most dire threat to America of all. That is our elected leaders not putting America’s true best interests first and instead sending us off on a wild goose chase for personal gratification and gain.
Look at the facts. Three thousand innocent Americans are dead dead dead because of the actions of a bunch of Saudis and Egyptians. The ringleader is Osama bin Laden who runs a club called Al Qaeda that trains in Afghanistan and Sudan. Osama is a dual-citizen of both Saudi Arabia and Yemen, where the USS Cole was bombed and american servicemen killed – an act of war tracable back to Al Queada and Osama, whose ultimate goal is to get Americans out of his beloved Saudi Arabian holy land.
Let’s do a quick review here – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Osama.
So W CLOSES THE ONLY AMERICAN BASE IN SAUDI ARABIA (A TREASONOUS ACT that AIDED AMERICA’S ENEMIES and was EXACTLY WHAT OSAMA WANTED), while getting 1000 American soldiers killed, 8000+ maimed and wounded, $100+ billion and counting wasted, in IRAQ? Um, IRAQ? Cuz They Got Oil and Saddam Tried To Hurt My Daddy?
WTF has this got to do with catching and stopping Osama and Al Qaeda from killing more Americans? For all the talk I’m hearing from W about Osama and Al Qaeda lately, I feel like I’m lost in a bad Harry Potter knock-off novel where America’s Greatest Enemy is He Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken. That’s a sorry, sorry intolerable state of affairs. I can hardly wait to cast my palty vote against W for his absolutely stunning level of ineptitude. I only wish the facts of how bad things are had been more widely publicised by our equally pathetic news media (just like this electrical grid article should be) so more people would join me at the ballot box.
Dis Clinton all you want, but he at least fired cruise missiles into the right country that was indeed an al Qaeda stronghold – Sudan. If America had poured our current level of military force into Afghanistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Sudan where it was needed instead of squandering it for absolutely nothing in Iraq, the following goals would have been accomplished that are but elusive dreams today: (1) secure supplies of oil with (2) fewer casualties from hitting softer targets and (3) higher probability of catching Osama while (4) shutting down the true weapon of mass destruction heroin and the millions of dollars for terrorism it produces that is now pouring out of Afghanistan because we have too few forces in place there to stop it and last but not least (5) stopping a Yet Another Genocide in Sudan, where black, oil-less Muslims are getting killed at rates orders of magnitude faster than those Iraqi Muslims under Saddam that pull at W’s heartstrings so.
Gotta stop for now before my blood pressure totally blows a gasket. But before I stop, let me say that those you would call “environmentalists” generating their own electricity and selling it to their local power company, I would call “profit-seeking business people”.
YHBT.
Rather effectively, judging by how much your blood pressure went up…
Methinks you may be right. Gotta quit posting right after I roll out of bed before my brain has woken up…
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Hey, your blood pressure is serious — I would suggest you get some medication for that.
All I did was ask a simple, loaded, tongue-in-cheek question. The reason is explained in this article about an incident here in Texas. If I had the time and wanted to, there are MANY more examples out there (but I leave that as an exercise to the discerning reader).
Concerning the FBI and Patriot Act and whatever else there is out there that is eroding our privacy and freedoms in the United States, we’re on the same page, rickyjames. You and I know damn well that 9/11 notwithstanding, there are things going on that shouldn’t be (similar, I’ve heard, to the 20’s-30’s of Nazi Germany), all in the name of protecting the citzens. Besides the police turning into para-military organizations and freedoms of speech, travel, and pursuit of happiness being curtailed and stifled, there’s that fear of being railroaded — isn’t it amazing how many innocent people are being discovered in prisons? I would rant on a little, since I do take blood pressure meds, but if you think you and I don’t see the same things happening in the U.S., you’re working too hard and not sleeping enough.
Finally, if you haven’t gleaned my disdain for treehug… er, environmentalists by now many of my posts have been in vain. <sigh> However, to call the sincere people who happen to generate more electricity than they need and sell the excess to the local power company “profit-seeking business people” is short-sighted, under-informed, and possibly jealous. The number of articles I read about wind, solar, or water power, and even cow manure power — not to mention exciting new power generating techniques like this and this and this and this and this and this — tells me that it’s not always for the money.
Unfortunately your superiors and you were thinking critically when dismissing security by obscurity. We haven’t begun to evaluate how big a problem it is to our society that most of us don’t understand how most of it works. Taking science for a moment, and scientific method, it’s easy to look at so much of what makes today’s world tick, and it’s beyond most of us, in innate ability to learn, in determination to learn, or in time to learn. That’s not the problem.
The problem is pseudo-science. Pseudo-science offers a shortcut past all that messy learning, all that messy math, and all that stuff. Meditating over crystals may take a lot of time, and some may say it’s "hard," but I’d assert that it’s still much easier than learning math, physics, chemistry, etc. And pseudo-science isn’t only expressed in crystals and energy-babble – it takes other forms like "Creation Science." But even that’s not the real problem.
The real problem is that policy makers may well have too much ego to accept that they have to rely on an expert, that they may not have the wherewithal to become comfortable with science-related decisions because they’re just too limited, by ability, determination, or time. Pseudo-science can be much more "comfort food" for the mind, and when that starts to drive policy, we have problems.
The more insidious side is that pseudo-science doesn’t all look like what it is. For instance, Security by Obscurity seems intuitively obvious to one not versed in cryptography. Moreover, Security by Obscurity *can* be a useful element of a security policy, as long as it supplements more sound security methods. Finally, Security by Obscurity can suit some business models – even if they know it’s not real, it has other benefits – for the seller/owner.
IMHO, that’s where Homeland Security is at, today.
The world has always been a dangerous place.
The problem with this dangerous world, frankly speaking, really rests with us. “We” have made it hazardous to live in. The very fact that someone’s BP goes up while discussing politics actually demonstrates why and how the world evolved into being such an unsecured or unstable set of societies. And that is evident strictly because every political issue is fueled by emotion and far too few are driven by fact.
If you want this world to improve, quit being angry with ‘the opposition’.
I totally agree.
I’m not exactly thinking that it’s good to become a pacifist, either. It just seems like it is always too easy to point fingers at the opposition, (whomever they may happen to be) when articulating a sound point minus the malice would be the right and constructive thing to do.
For some odd reason, I’ve never been bothered or noticed politicians attacking each other during an election year. This years election politics, however, have just about pushed me over the edge.
How about you?
In reference to today’s quote by Chuck Hagel. (posted by I don’t know who)
A lot of people say a great number of things about politicians and quite a bit of it isn’t true at all. But I guess in an election year, we all pick and choose what we want to listen to.
I have been doing most of the quotes lately, but since you’re curious, that particular one was by rickyjames.