[snowwindwaves]

Most of the plants I've worked on can't island themselves by design. It costs more to do it and sometimes requires additional or more expensive equipment, more attention to details in the design, and there is no point for a lot of generators that just get paid for MWh and they probably aren't going to generate many MWh islanded over the life time of the plant. Some generators even get paid for the energy they would have generated if the grid is down.

How many people have a manual transmission car just so they can pop the clutch if the batter is dead.