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Comment by ForHackernews | Hacker News Reader

In the UK, the National Grid Operator maintains "black start" plans[0] for rebooting the entire national electrical grid from a zero power situation, and they pay individual plants to conduct annual drills. However, for obvious reasons, these plans have never been tried in anything close to real-world conditions, and it's something of an open question whether it would work.

[0] https://www.theblackoutreport.co.uk/2023/06/13/black-start/

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It's not just rebooting. There will be damage even in stored brand-new equipment

How it gets damaged? For comparison lightning is stronger than solar flares but only rarely damages stored unconnected equipment.

The earth and everything in and on it is part of an electrical system, as solar emissions wash across the landscape they’ll stimulate the flow of electrons in everything especially metal and circuit based items. Since circuits in many items are delicate things, designed for very specific currents, it will be a near guarantee that electrical components will be damaged.

This is incorrect. A solar flare is not like an EMP. It's low frequency so only wires that are miles long would be energized. It could possibly destroy electronics that aren't protected by a power strip. But no, it's not going to destroy your cellphone or the electronics in your car.

Thank you for explaining the distinction, I had assumed the result was more similar to emp.

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