Power Grids?

[headborg 1]

Ok..this is a follow up question/topic to the "how long will gasoline "keep"...if everyone disappeared...how long would the power grid/electricity stay on without anyone to manage it?

[nik 0]

Hmmmm..... Interesting question. I don't know too much about the power grid, but I bet I could make an educated guess. It depends on several things: power source, consumption, and mechanical maintenance. If everyone disappeared, I imagine the level of consumption would go down at least a little, so the drain on the grid would drop.

Coal-powered plants would probably shut off before a single day for the reason that they require a constant and large amount of coal to continue functioning. I'm guessing gas plants would be next to go - a week maybe? Sources of natural power such as wind and hydroelectric would probably operate for quite some time. Nuclear plants would also operate for quite some time - perhaps a decade. In the case of natural power and nuclear, the limiting factor would probably be maintenance. Fuel rods in nuclear plants corrode pretty quickly and are replaced every 5-20 years or so; corrosion can result in a change of geometry which would most likely result in a loss of efficiency or (much less likely) a meltdown. The same is probably true for hydroelectric power.

 

However, considering that most of the electricity (at least in the U.S.) is via fossil fuels, the drain on existing power sources after the coal and gas plants go down would probably be pretty great, and there might be several brown outs. There are also safeguards built into the electric grid which would probably force a shutdown or rotating shutdowns. A similar situation occured last summer when the entire eastern seaboard lost power.

 

This is just speculative thinking, but a likely scenario, I bet. I really don't know too much about the power grid. I did work in a nuclear power plant for a summer in college, so I'm aware of that avenue, and met several people who worked for the coal plants, which drink coal like water.