South America blackout leaves tens of millions without power

South America blackout leaves tens of millions without power
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The lights were back on Monday across Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay after a huge blackout that affected tens of millions people, but authorities remained in the dark about the cause of the grid collapse and continued to calculate the economic damage.

Argentine President Mauricio Macri promised a thorough investigation into what he called an “unprecedented” outage, one that raised questions about flaws in South America’s power grid, which connects many of the region’s largest countries.
Hunt begins for the cause of huge South American blackout

Energy officials said the results of the investigation would be available in 10 to 15 days, and they could not immediately provide details on the economic impact of the outage, which happened on a Sunday, a day before a national holiday in Argentina.

Cyberattacks Make Smart Grids Look Pretty Dumb
Bloomberg Opinion) -- Imagine if your thermostat led to a region-wide power blackout.

It’s a scenario that’s looking increasingly plausible. Argentina isn’t ruling out a cyberattack as the possible cause for the mass outage that affected millions of people in five South American countries over the weekend. Even if that incident turns out to have a more innocent explanation, the U.S. government is stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s power grid, the New York Times reported Saturday, citing unnamed officials.

The growing threat from hacking is somewhat inevitable given the way our power systems are changing. Electricity networks are traditionally highly centralized, with limited ability to monitor and control supply and demand in real time, leaving grid operators dependent on forecasting unusual consumption spikes to prevent the system from falling over.

The spread of smart metering and automated control systems has changed that landscape, with more than 10% of global grid investments – equivalent to some $30 billion a year – now dedicated to digital network infrastructure. The grids of the near future are likely to be increasingly decentralized: Owners of domestic refrigerators, air conditioners and industrial facilities will be compensated for switching off to smooth out demand peaks; home, vehicle, and utility-scale batteries will buy cheap electrons and charge up in times of excess generation.
Cyberattacks Make Smart Grids Look Pretty Dumb

My thoughts ... Could be a dry run ..... And with that who did it ... we may never know ... Just another reason to prepare for such an event... The fact that it hit several countries is very concerning ...

Talking about stuxnet
Many water pumping stations are monitored over the internet ... How hard would it be to burn out all the pumps ?... Just throwing that out there ... Lack of electricity is not the only damage that could be thrust upon a country..