[toss1]

THIS!!

It would be relatively cheap (I've reak ~$500million) to build and store a mostly complete replacement set of transformers.

The difference it would make in a Carrington+ event (or a EMP nuclear attack) is insane. Without them, likely the grid collapses for years, along with distribution, food, etc. Millions die in the years-decades it takes to recover.

With the transformer standby inventory, critical parts of the grid could be restored in hours-days, and full recovery in a few months. The one country that prepared itself with a backup inventory would instantly be the world's superpower for years, likely generations.

Yet, because there is no immediate benefit, only stochastic, there is no political will to even start to get it done. Even a 10% inventory would make a huge difference, but...

[pixl97]

Honestly this is one of those events where billions could possibly die.

Green revolution. The level of food we need requires nitrogen. This is broken down by natural gas into fertilizer and requires immense amount of energy and transportation. When the grid gets knocked out, you're on a countdown till you run out of gas/petrol. If you don't get enough power back up before this happens you're running into a game over situation. Once fuel runs low and food runs out, people will start killing each other in massive amounts to deal with the resource constrained world they live in. Once enough electrical engineers die then the system doesn't come back up.

[toss1]

Yup, it could really go down that way.

When animal populations overbreed and/or their feed under-grows, a 10% overpopulation often results in not a 10% shaving of population, but a 90% population crash, because almost every animal goes under the survival budget.

It would very much the same here.

Excellent point about the EEs (and other high-capability engineers, mechanics, technicians required to keep it all running) being in the dying population. Absolutely right - if the critical mass of available experts fails, the system never recovers. Only after society stabilizes, regrows, and re-creates the knowledge; by then, it would be about rebuilding from scratch.