better get your emergency cache ready...

[Seascamp]

I don?t think a hacker can get hold of a Power plant. Anything having to do with direct plant control is buried well behind firewalls, and are without any outside access. In that these devices most usually use firmware rather than software it would be real tough to get in and mess with them. At any given plant, only a few people have access to the control equipment and the specialized equipment it takes to change any of the firmware. Those are the Kings Jules so to speak. Software driven systems would watch the parameters coming out of the control systems but that?s a read only situation.

Inter Company communication is via WAN or LAN and sometimes microwave and is a totally separate system with no interconnects to the control system at all. This is very typical of a power plant, chemical plant of petroleum refining plant. So if anyone is messing with the controls it would have to be an inside job. Grid status boards are fairly simple read only devices and the ones I have seen get their data off a secure and coded microwave link. And if anyone is paying attention trouble can be seen developing and there maybe time to pull the plug and get off the grid. The east grid is connected all the Rocky Mountains so theoretically it could all get knocked down. But the way grid regions are organized precludes that possibility. The New England States, New Jersey and Pennsylvania saw it coming and pulled the plug and I?m guessing others didn?t have time or weren?t watching. For the rest of the hot season I can reasonably assume all the grid status boards are being watched very closely and the plug is ready to be pulled.

No one is optimistic the grid will hold so we could see several rounds of loosing the load until it cools off. But I?m thinking now that everyone is heads and ears up there may only be localized blackouts.

Scamp