I’m in northern Ontario and I was out driving around away from home in another nearby town when the 2003 North American black out happened. I found out about it because I needed gas and every gas station was down. Everyone had to gather at the one station in town with a back up generator.
When I talked to my friends about it after, one friend I know was a technician at one of the hydro power generating centers in the far north told me he had missed an opportunity to catch the cascade. He said they have people monitoring everything all the time and usually they can spot a cascade power outage coming their way of given enough time. He said the stations in the north had time and his was just in the edge of being able to react in time but he was in the toilet when it happened! … he left his post for a few minutes like he always did and just at that moment, the cascade happened and it passed their station. I laughed at him and joked that he was probably asleep at the time.
Going through that experience is what made me eventually buy a solar generator when I had the money in the right spot. I’ve felt really unsafe until I managed to get one figured out. Jumped on a Black Friday deal *during the pandemic and got a DJI Power 1000 and two solar panel sets for $500.
I’ve given it a fair shake at this point, and just with the light in my enclosed back yard, I am collecting almost 400W/h, which is more than enough to run the fridge for a few days by cycling the power so it runs for only a few hours total per day.
I really really recommend folks explore solar these days. Battery storage technology has really, really improved since the early 2000s. Solar panels aren’t meaningfully any more efficient, but the real advantage these days is that panels are dirt nasty cheap if you are willing to wait on freight times. You can even buy a $30 panel rated at 6W and connect it to a USB power bank and run your vapes, Flipper Zero, etc on solar!
I’m in northern Ontario and I was out driving around away from home in another nearby town when the 2003 North American black out happened. I found out about it because I needed gas and every gas station was down. Everyone had to gather at the one station in town with a back up generator.
When I talked to my friends about it after, one friend I know was a technician at one of the hydro power generating centers in the far north told me he had missed an opportunity to catch the cascade. He said they have people monitoring everything all the time and usually they can spot a cascade power outage coming their way of given enough time. He said the stations in the north had time and his was just in the edge of being able to react in time but he was in the toilet when it happened! … he left his post for a few minutes like he always did and just at that moment, the cascade happened and it passed their station. I laughed at him and joked that he was probably asleep at the time.
Going through that experience is what made me eventually buy a solar generator when I had the money in the right spot. I’ve felt really unsafe until I managed to get one figured out. Jumped on a Black Friday deal *during the pandemic and got a DJI Power 1000 and two solar panel sets for $500.
I’ve given it a fair shake at this point, and just with the light in my enclosed back yard, I am collecting almost 400W/h, which is more than enough to run the fridge for a few days by cycling the power so it runs for only a few hours total per day.
I really really recommend folks explore solar these days. Battery storage technology has really, really improved since the early 2000s. Solar panels aren’t meaningfully any more efficient, but the real advantage these days is that panels are dirt nasty cheap if you are willing to wait on freight times. You can even buy a $30 panel rated at 6W and connect it to a USB power bank and run your vapes, Flipper Zero, etc on solar!