Power Cut Strangeness

Yesterday was an odd one. What with the power cuts an' all. Fortunately my area was unaffected, which is the main thing :) It was quite strange though as it seemed to affect multiple parts of the country and not just a specific region. Which I guess would suggest it was more a systemic issue, rather than an actual physical issue or breakage in a particular part of the power network. It also seemed to disproportionately affect the transport network - though that may just be a false impression I have based on what I saw in the media. The loss of power at Newcastle Airport seemed especially odd given how remote it was from all the other areas affected.

Director of operations, Duncan Burt (I have no idea who that is I'm just copying a BBC article) stated it was an incredibly rare event, "the near simultaneous loss of two large power stations". The article also states that he did not believe it was a cyber attack.

Obviously I have no real idea what happened, but I would lean towards the idea that it was either a test of some sort (one necessitating that the public be kept in the dark), a cyber attack, or some other sort of digital malfunction.

Having watched more of the Duncan Burt interview he seems to suggest that power was deliberately directed away from transport services and hospitals by the system in response to the power shortage - a kind of automatic systems response. Explaining the disproportionate affect on the transport network perhaps. However, again this seems odd given that you'd think the system would prioritise hospitals and transport in such a circumstance. Something he acknowledged when pressed by the interviewer, saying it needed looking into.

So we have the simultaneous loss of two power stations. Unlikely, but certainly possible. Yet also a failure in how the network responded to the crisis. Again perfectly possible, these things happen. However, taken together with the loss of the two power stations we have a series of unlikely occurrences it seems.

Hopefully it won't happen again anytime soon.