"Grid down scenario" is the #1 reason we invested in all this solar gear.
Need electricity to operate the well pump & refrigeration, among other things.
(Reason #2 was to reduce the monthly electric bill)
Hurricanes are the main reason for prolonged grid outages.
Have been through a few in the last 7+ decades of living here.
Service is usually restored within 2 weeks or less.
The next reason is DUI drivers knocking down power poles in our rural area - power is restored quickly: (less than a day)
Not worried about man made EMP, but this solar cycle might send some unwanted energy our way:
www.swpc.noaa.gov
I remember 30-40 years ago a solar event had the tropical night sky glowing bright red here.
Very unusual at this latitude.
I have implemented UL 1449 surge protection because of the amount of lightning strikes here during Summer, hope it helps w/ induced energy on the grid side of our connection.
We don't sell back, so the solar electronics are not going to see anything massive coming from the grid.
Also implemented some of the Motorola R56 standard grounding & bonding (built a halo system) around the building that has the Schneider electronics in it.
As others have mentioned, letting vast numbers of foreign soldiers and terrorists in to the country will eventually result in attacks on infrastructure and institutions, so in terms of probability of extended grid down reasons, this might be higher than hurricanes now.
A few years ago, I went on the public tour of the Grand Coulee dam.
The tour is much less extensive than before, due to security concerns.
But they did show us the system that is designed to prevent a vehicle from driving on to the dam, it would shred a big truck that hit it at speed, very impressive.
added idea - if the North America grid is significantly damaged, and down for a long time, the data centers providing Internet, cloud and storage will shut down.
The one I worked at had about 8MW worth of giant gensets, but only "day tanks" of
Diesel, requiring a tanker refill. Twin 24 cylinder, quad-turbo Diesels are thirsty.
So I'm buying one of those "Starlink" contraptions, reasoning that somewhere on the planet,
there will be a functioning net.
Starlink and a 1951 HF tube-type receiver will keep me connected to the world, I hope.
