Marc Elsberg in his book "Blackout" outlined a vision of a Europe plunged into darkness. In his story, the title blackout was triggered by terrorists, but the scale of what could have happened if the electricity had run out one day is incredible.
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Until recently, we could follow stories about power outages on the pages of books. The event that took place in Bełchatów leads us to consider whether the blackout is actually just around the corner and its occurrence does not cause paralysis on an unprecedented scale?
Warning signal
The fact that the Polish energy system is in poor condition, experts dealing with the subject have warned for a long time. The demand for energy is growing steadily and it is no wonder that the politicians have finally deal with the uncomfortable topic. As reported by the website "WysokieNapiecie.pl", representatives of key ministries and heads of Polish Power Grids were to meet in March, during which the long-term action plan was discussed.
It is no secret that after 2025, at the time of the planned shut down of the capacity market for old coal-fired power plants, we may face a very serious problem. It is already speculated today that the holes in the system will not be patched, which in turn leads to the conclusion that it will be simply impossible to meet all needs.
Power shortages? The need to limit its consumption at specific times of days or even a year? These are still visions that sound like what Marc Elsberg wrote in his novel, but each year brings us closer to fulfilling them. An important warning signal was exactly what happened at the largest Polish power plant in Bełchatów, where a serious failure of the transformer station led to the largest downtime in history.
It is estimated that 3.6 GW of power "disappeared" from the system in just one second. Ten of the eleven blocks of the power plant have stopped working, and the situation has not grown to dramatic proportions only thanks to the reserve and foreign aid. What exactly is it about when we write about "dramatic proportions"? Even the complete disintegration of the power system on the Europe?
Who is ready and who is not?
What has not yet happened to Poland and Europe on a large scale, has already happened on the other side of the Atlantic several times. This most memorable event occurred in 2003, when the blackout reached the northern part of the United States and Canada, with a total of around 50 million electricity consumers.
While a single farm is able to cope with the lack of electricity even for a long time, in the case of factories and large production plants, the consequences are much more tangible. In that region, 40 percent of factories had to shut down completely for more than a day, another 42 percent experienced downtime of at least one day, and 11 percent faced temporary downtime. Only 5 percent of the factories were ready for blackout thanks to the installation of special backup and emergency systems.
Although we are talking about an event that happened almost two decades ago, it cannot be assumed that a similar power outage will not happen again. Rather, their likelihood is greater than ever. The only question is whether this great blackout (here we should also mention similar events in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, where a gigantic failure deprived 620 million recipients of electricity!), as well as the slightly smaller ones (such as the London one in 2003) meant that appropriate conclusions have been drawn? What if this black - nomen omen - scenario works for Europe?
At this point, it is worth quoting a survey that "Automation World" conducted among representatives of factories and large plants. Of the 117 manufacturers surveyed, 43 percent said they were not ready for a blackout, 46 percent said they were ready to some extent, and only 11 percent were fully prepared in the event of a major downtime.
Better to prevent than to cure
Already Erasmus of Rotterdam at the beginning of the 16th century stated that prevention is better than cure. Although since that time has passed more than 500 years, not everyone remembers to send this rather simple maxim.
Fortunately, many know that the stakes are high and they prefer to invest today to ensure their comfort and safety tomorrow. Something that can provide them is the so-called Blackout mode from B & R, which provides a full set of features in the event of network failure. The whole is supported by a new driver safety SafeLOGIC X20SL8191 and modules SafeIO Reaction technology provides access to business continuity in the event of a complete power failure.
But this is not the only option to ensure their own security. It is worth remembering also emergency power supplies, which can be found in the warehouse stock Automation Trader, and that in the event of a sudden power outage in your home or company will avoid costly problems related with a defect in a variety of equipment.
All thanks to the topology of such power supplies. Line-Interactive and the built-in AVR voltage regulation module give additional confidence that small deviations in the output current will not harm even sensitive devices, while the low switching time of the APC BX 1100CI-CN power supply allows you to instantly change the power source to the built-in battery.
Protecting yourself against the worst, however, is only one side of the coin. The second is that this black scenario will just happen. The question is with what power and will such a collapse of the power system exceed the scale that European countries will be able to cope with? - Every year it will be getting worse in Europe - said professor Władysław Mielczarski from the Łódz University of Technology during a conversation with „Rzeczpospolita”.
- I think that Europe will face a blackout in the next two or three years - added Mielczarski, making it clear that the black scenario is not a matter of "will it happen?”, but „when?"
This sad conclusion and the inevitability of an impending power outage may be a matter of concern. On the other hand, it can be hoped that the prospect of a threat and significant financial losses will persuade responsible people to take advance moves that will adequately protect us.
