[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

In any kind of manmade large-scale problem, it tends to be a combination of failings coming together at the same time. I suspect this situation will be no different.

In my line of work. Reliability Engineering of telecomms networks, you determine all the possible failure modes (dependencies), calculate their probabilities and design mitigations. Sometimes (but rarely) we miss a failure mode and then learn fore the next iteration of the reliability report.

Electrical networks, at the distribution level, are not a million miles away from telecomms in the topological sense. So SPOFs and common modes are usually easy to identify. A SPOF can be a disaster; a common mode (for example duff software in transmission hardware that routes electricity) can also lead to disaster.

This amplifies Andrew's statement. But what we need to find out is what their reliability assessment and risk analysis stated. Even more important, is to find out what our stupid governments have assessed.