T&TEC prepared for total blackout?

THE EDITOR: Last year, on a Wednesday, shortly after noon, Trinidad experienced a total power “blackout” for approximately 12 hours. The failure of the entire grid lasted throughout most of the night and into the next day in several areas.

Because TT is modernised and interconnected, it significantly relies on technology for all operations, from computers to checkout scanners and even security, so all businesses, households and government operations ground to a screeching halt that fateful day in February.

While it was the most egregious power failure in recent memory, since then there have been several other instances of power outages.

While vital systems like radio and television utilise backup generators to keep them on the air, what about the transmission networks, the transmitters and the towers that transmit data to homes, hospitals and other essentials?

Moreover, what about the networks that support cell phones with voice and data? When they go down, livelihoods cease functioning and lives are at stake.

For example, imagine a hospital operating room where delicate lifesaving surgery is being performed; the surgeon may be relying on instructions from experts in other countries via an internet linkup.

While the backup generators may kick on, restoring communications to the remote experts will take several minutes. Meanwhile, the patient is lying there eviscerated, the operation’s outcome is in jeopardy, while the surgeons await the resumption of power and internet connectivity.

So, should we throw our hands in despair and give in to the pantheon of progress?

Even though homeowners can invest in backup generators or power inverters that convert battery voltage to household current, allowing them to power their refrigerators, television sets and lights, what about the missing communication links from cell towers and transmitters? Which, of course, means no cable TV, internet, or cellphones.

Furthermore, while the politicians may tell the public that it was “an act of God,” they need to be more proactive so that this will not happen again because of a lack of foresight.

That brings us full circle back to the power stations. Existential technology can be implemented to prevent the collapse of the entire grid.

Installing cheap devices that can accomplish this are programmable logic arrays (PLCs) installed at critical points along the entire electric grid, from the generating plants to the users, which will give an alert of an isolated disruption and route power around it to protect the rest of the grid.

According to Scientific American, the “Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, California, has proposed complex adaptive systems for large regional power grids. Several utilities have now deployed, at a demonstration scale, smart remote terminal units and programmable controllers that can autonomously execute simple processes without first checking with a human controller or that can be reprogrammed at a distance by operators. However, much wider implementation is needed.”

Furthermore, this artificial intelligence will allow the grid to self-heal by using adaptive technology to isolate problems and prevent one failure from causing the total island-wide blackout that will happen again unless we upgrade now. If not now, when? Will it be after more losses, after lives are lost, and misery has engulfed the entire nation?

How will we pay for this? First, considering that blackout disruptions can cause significant losses to commerce in the order of billions of dollars across thousands of businesses, government operations like ports, banks, and other industries, the cost should be split equitably by increasing taxes on those operations that earn hundreds of billions in profit annually, not by increasing the cost of electricity to already beleaguered homeowners.

And let’s not forget the millionaire heads of corporations who stash their billions in profits in offshore accounts and invest locally earned income in foreign businesses and homes.

Moreover, tax the lawyers who make hundreds of millions from government briefs. Taxing them heavily will return the money where it originated – the Treasury. So, for example, instead of lawyers receiving $800 million (and counting) over the last seven years, as has been reported recently, tax them at 75 per cent so they will take home $200 million instead.

That, my fellow citizens, will be the beginning of restorative justice.

REX CHOOKOLINGO

Microsoft certified

systems engineer

rexchook@gmail.com