• ickplant@lemmy.worldOP
    122·
    2 days ago

    all critical locations have huge DC batteries specifically design to take over during a short outage. Then generators.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
      710·
      2 days ago

      There would always be a risk any backup systems fail. As another commenter pointed out, in other countries it would be illegal to cut power like that for that kind of reason. And that’s a good thing. Power is literally keeping people alive and shouldn’t be turned off because it seems mean to leave it on.

      But a better point is, no one discussing this knows what downstream effects could happen if they killed the power. Seems kind of crazy to me to pretend we do.

      • scratchee@feddit.ukEnglish
        101·
        2 days ago

        A backup system that isn’t tested regularly is not a backup at all, just the illusion of one.

        If you can’t turn the power off with 24h notice then nature will turn it off with zero notice at the most inconvenient moment.

        • Robin@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          They should indeed do regular tests of their backups. They should also ensure technical staff is on-site during those tests.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
          412·
          2 days ago

          I do not follow the logic of people being so blinded by their love of cats that they literally think they can become electrical grid engineers and know all the risks, just because they want to know them.

          It does not matter if every single vulnerable building has backups and tested them yesterday (obviously none of that could ever be close to true), it’s still a non-zero risk to human lives, for one cat.

          • ameancow@lemmy.worldEnglish
            102·
            2 days ago

            They reroute and turn off sections of wiring all the damn time for maintenance, they have crews out in the field who are literally going around, turning some lines off after turning others on, and doing routine work on lines, transformers and other components. It’s not life and death, it’s just a company being cheap and lazy.

            If having a love for life and wanting better outcomes and hope and inspiration for innocent life baffles your sense of logic, then maybe your sense of logic is flawed and holding you back from emotional growth.

            • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
              34·
              2 days ago

              Sure go ahead and assume I want the cat to die. Which I didn’t. What the fuck.

              The cat was rescued apparently anyway.

              • ameancow@lemmy.worldEnglish
                61·
                2 days ago

                You’re digging yourself into a hole that seems oblivious to normal human feelings and getting irate at the responses. This is all you baby.

          • scratchee@feddit.ukEnglish
            61·
            2 days ago

            The cat isn’t part of the equation, I gave no opinion on that. The risk of never testing your failure response is much higher than the risk of testing your failure response.

            If a test happens to save a cat? Lucky cat. If not, they’ll still have to test it at some other point anyway.

            • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
              48·
              2 days ago

              I never remotely commented that backup systems shouldn’t be tested. Bizarre.

      • ickplant@lemmy.worldOP
        91·
        2 days ago

        If their back up system fails then it’s their fault for not keeping it up to date. Seriously, my husband is an engineer who designs these battery systems. They do not “fail” if they are maintained and replaced properly.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
          511·
          2 days ago

          Patently absurd. Technology often fails regardless of what you do. Inviting that failure would be negligence and should be illegal.

          The one thing I know for sure about any engineer is that we are intimately familiar with the concept of things failing when it’s least convenient.

          • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
            37·
            2 days ago

            We’ve got the Lemmy/Reddit worldview out in force. We should shut down vital infrastructure, risking life safety of many, for a cat. I say this loving cats: that’s silly.

            • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
              28·
              2 days ago

              Yeah, I knew when I commented it might get some backlash, but the strength of it is somewhat depressing. Isn’t Lemmy supposed to be mostly rational intelligent people?

              I guess it just tells us how commonplace it is for people to declare a risk either worth it or non-existent without a fucking clue about the actual risk they are talking about.

              In any case, thank you for demonstrating that there are still some sane people left out there.

              • ameancow@lemmy.worldEnglish
                6·
                2 days ago

                Isn’t Lemmy supposed to be mostly rational intelligent people?

                Are you fucking insane.