Another power substation attack; Dec 25 2022; Pierce County, Washington 6

[FacEngrPE]

Four substations attacked in Washington state, leaving thousands without power Location: Pierce County, Washington

Over 7,000 left without power after three Pierce County substation facilities attacked; KTVB

Vandals hit fourth Pierce County substation in Christmas Day attacks; Dec. 26, 2022 at 10:14 am Updated Dec. 26, 2022 at 12:11 pm

 

[ATSE]

Reading the news article from the links above, it appears city folks don't quite understand their fellow rural citizens.
It could be domestic terrorism. Seems unlikely, and hopefully not.
More likely - a young wayward male with a hunting rifle, and too much time on his hands and no concept of the damage a single bullet can do. To a fool, this is like shooting a stop sign, except substantially more costly.
Of course, no justification at all for this - this must stop, and punishment should be proportionate to private and public harm. Where I live, punishment for crime has gone out of style. But maybe this will bring it back.
Back to engineering - this is not really an engineering failure at all. And probably not some extremist group action. Certainly not well organaized.
But an upside - if there is one - is that utilities across the nation will probably take infrastructure hardening and resilience more seriously.

 

[Overvoltage]

I would agree with you up to a point. If it were one substation, I'd be on board with it being "bored youth". Four in a short period smells fishy to me, however.

Agree that it's not an "engineering failure". The substations were not designed to stop a bullet through cooling fins. That would add significantly to the cost through changed designs/hardened perimeters/etc. It wasn't a scenario that made sense looking at the cost/benefit analysis of likelihood of risk at the time. That may change, especially for "critical" subs based on events in NC and CA previously. It's hard to imagine that every 2500 kVA rural substation will be build with concrete walls or bullet stopping materials, however.

Hopefully the realization of some of this results in changes all over. More serious investigation and prosecution of crimes against infrastructure (left or right perpetrators regardless of the reason) and hardening where it makes sense (should we at least make the perimeter out of something opaque rather than just chain link).

What's more likely, however, is more "paper pushing" due to regulations that will raise costs, improve the hardening (slightly), and make the politicians look like they "did something".

 

[1503-44]

4 is definitely not a coincidence and definitely not from too much beer.
It's time to stop giving this the benefit of doubt.

It is an engineering failure in the sense that these types of facilities are now recommended to be protected and they are "engineered facilities" in that they don't fit in exactly the same box as shooting up a school or grocery parking lot. Is a battle tank with too light armor not an engineering failure? Bullet resistant now needs to go on the spec list for a lot of this stuff..

Regulations will not be required, if the industry acts on the problem. No politicians required. The reason it gets political is because industry otherwise does what it wants, which typically is not in the public's interest, but their own. Do you want harder targets, costs more, or confiscation of their toys, costs less.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[TugboatEng]

How many substations are in the US? How often does an outage cause a substantial impact? How many substations get shot annually? How many of the three most recent substation shootings caused a substantial outage? It is still quite likely. These are unrelated, they're just more visible because of reporting.

Then again, there is something very anti-capitalist about a Christmas day substation shooting..

 

[JohnRBaker]

And what are you implying using a term like "anti-capitalist"?

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[TugboatEng]

You know

 

[1503-44]

ANTIFA returns to the picture. Betcha it's not.

Well a capitalist certainly couldn't do it on black Friday, or any business day for that matter.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[TugboatEng]

Left wing radicals are in the list as well. See page "v".

https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/101049NCJRS.pdf

I don't know why it irks JRB so badly when this is mentioned.

40 years later, nothing has changed from that article.

 

[1503-44]

Its because your list is out of date. Plenty has changed.
That's the best you can do 1986. I'm not too worried about Puerto Rico, or Cubans, or Armainians.
Probably has the IRA and the Red Brigade somewhere in there too. That was even before Hamas and ISIS. The problem of late is the new right wingers that have been ignored for way too long and in fact encouraged from the highest level of gov. Are the proud idiots and oath trashers listed? No.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[TugboatEng]

You know Google censors search results. I have to get creative to get around their algorithms sometimes. One trick is to predate your searches to prior ro the media picking up subjects. It helps clear out some bias.

Antifa aren't anti-capitalist, they're just bigots. I don't see them secretly targeting infrastructure. They burn businesses and politician's homes, they're pursuing people.

 

[1503-44]

None of that is THE problem today anyway. The problem is in bold type above.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[TugboatEng]

That's BS. They haven't identified a single perpetrator. You don't know what their motivations are.

 

[dik]

The problem likely stems from the manner in which the government has addressed the wishes of the Right and Ultra Right, in the first place. They've created an unfriendly and anti-social behaviour environment. To vilify those that want to change it and restrict change, they are categorically referred to as the 'Left'.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[TugboatEng]

Only one political side has vilified energy.

 

[1503-44]

I plead the 5th.

Happy New Year everybody.
It's gonna be wild.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[IRstuff]

Only one political side has vilified energy.

That's nonsensical; everyone needs energy.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[1503-44]

Even some oil companies are trying to wash their hands of fossil fuel now.

Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[JohnRBaker]

The left has NEVER vilified 'energy', but rather the methods of production, one versus another.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[TugboatEng]

Just hold off on assigning political blame to this in this "engineering" forum. Nobody has been identified in a substation vandalism case, ever. You don't know, I don't know. There is no precedent. There is no pattern. That is all.