@jesced I was not aware of the blackouts happening In Venezuela. Nor was aware that some are claiming sabotage via EMP using an aircraft. The amount of power capacity an aircraft would have to have onboard would be insane to do anything to powerlines. Now I'm not an engineer so I may be wrong but just sounds very wild, and does not make sense to me.
And yes "air gapped" systems are needed. Having critical systems accessible by the internet is a huge concern and should be firewalled at the very least.
Sounds like to me poor maintenance of the turbines and not enough redundancy. Sucks you and surrounding neighborhoods had to deal with that. And hopefully due to these blackouts now the people of Venezuela can point out the weak link in the infrastructure and demand it fixed.
I know this post is from awhile back but just now saw it. It was well written and I learned alot about the issue. Thanks for taking the time to write this out.
RE: Some thoughts on the Venezuelan electric and public services crisis.