The Black Sky Event Plan

[Jaymoss]

Either el gov is expecting something like a cyber attack knocking out infrastructure or they are trying to use fear to get control again like with Covid


using the BBC for their propaganda machine as usual

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ck5ynnj05z8no

Or…

It’s explaining Contingency Planning, which is nothing new if you’ve been part of a large organisation - in my last couple of jobs running IT Departments, we would be part of (every five years) of a Business Continuity organisation-wide exercise, to see if our plans for Business Continuity actually worked, and if not, where did we have to tweak them.

For example, what would we do if one of the two major sites lost power (even though we had stand-by generators on both sites, there was no way they could power dozens of buildings), or, what would we do if there was a major transportation incident, and people couldn’t get to site for a couple of days…

IMHO, it’s not ’using fear’ to try and let people understand we live in an interconnected world, and the impact of losing some of the building blocks, it’s educational.

YMMV

[TheDaddy]

We saw what happens in France if the Internet plays up, all their food ended up in the bin, seems like there is a grown up in charge, hoping for the best and preparing us for the worst

[Jaymoss]

But why has it been spread over a number of weeks and now a BBC report on it. It does not make sense to me that they would dribble information out instead of just doing it properly and officially all in one go it is bound to spike anxiety and they know that

[Carth]

I'm old enough (as are probably a few here) to remember the power cuts of the 70's. They weren't a massive problem, they didn't last long enough to turn into one.
Back then though, before the great technology explosion (lol) the majority of people/families had a larder stocked with basic foodstuff essentials - no fridge required. The majority also had coal fires and a coal bunker usually kept at least half full of coal/coke/logs. That coal fire (sometimes in more than one room) could provide heat and light, and also hot water if there was a back boiler. If things got too 'bad', with some ingenuity you could also use it to cook some foodstuff and boil water for hot drinks.

All that is now lost to history, and if electricity and/or gas was to be cut off for 3 or 4 days there would be huge problems. IMO the Government are simply trying to prepare and educate people for such an event.

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Carth

I'm old enough (as are probably a few here) to remember the power cuts of the 70's. They weren't a massive problem, they didn't last long enough to turn into one.
Back then though, before the great technology explosion (lol) the majority of people/families had a larder stocked with basic foodstuff essentials - no fridge required. The majority also had coal fires and a coal bunker usually kept at least half full of coal/coke/logs. That coal fire (sometimes in more than one room) could provide heat and light, and also hot water if there was a back boiler. If things got too 'bad', with some ingenuity you could also use it to cook some foodstuff and boil water for hot drinks.

All that is now lost to history, and if electricity and/or gas was to be cut off for 3 or 4 days there would be huge problems. IMO the Government are simply trying to prepare and educate people for such an event.

still got a coal /wood stove with oven and hotplate,full coal bunker and spare bags of coal

remember the power cuts? i was an ark welder had to resort to a petrol driven machine and it was a bugger to start

This is nothing new to those of us who spend too much time on Xitter …

Those in the know have been concerned for a couple of years now, how little reserve capacity there is in this country for electricity generation. A super-cold snap, or a cyber attack, could take enough generation offline to destabilise the grid. A grid collapse isn’t like a localised power cut, and it takes time and effort to get it running again. While it’s off, you’re looking at an extremely widespread power outage lasting several days. The clue in the BBC article is buried way down in paragraph 13. There is no *specific* threat to the grid, but any number of things now have the capability to bring it down. And that’s why they have been drip-feeding these resilience stories into the media for months.

---------- Post added at 11:18 ---------- Previous post was at 11:06 ----------

A couple of additional observations - the annual NESO Winter Outlook report makes it look like our reserve is rosy, but the methodology has changed this year and the output figure went up (surprise surprise). Further, we now rely on interconnectors for up to 10% of our power use. These are undersea cables that are vulnerable.

[Taf]

Common Sense seems to be in short supply amongst the (relatively) young these days.

So timely advice to get your winter clothing and footwear ready, do a bit of stocking-up on essentials in case bad weather stops you from getting to the shops (or for essentials to actually get to the shops), and have some emergency lighting ready in case of power cuts, all help those who rarely look up from their smartphones to notice what is happening around them. Mind you, a sudden loss of internet access might grab their attention.

Next they'll be telling us to isolate and insulate outside taps in case of freezing temperatures. In the same vein, yet again I'll have to remind a neighbour to replace his car's windscreen washer reservoir with a winter mix. You'd think that having to replace 3 of the reservoirs after they exploded after freezing would have registered in his brain by now.