Driving Miss Lazy

Like I have stated time and time again, this “scare the bejesus outta me “tactic based on the Russians hacking into the grid and turning off the lights, it is a foolhardy discussion. OK, now we have been warned that the Iranians have been given the passwords for sabotage, from Russia. So what, Vladimir Portnoy Putin decides to turn off the TV at supper time, what do we do now with no FOX - maybe have a family conversation on Stormy weather! But if equipped with qualified operators, our nation’s power plants are not vulnerable to a “hack attack”, as even with a computer in charge under siege an operator can take control and keep things stabilized. At best, a “hacker” could make his way into the 1^st layer of excitement - as that is wherein a “Dispatch Control” would be allowed access in efforts to coordinate things along the grid. So if a power utility is staying current with obligations, it should be routinely practicing “Local Control” so that the on-duty operators can take over when things get out of hand. In a modern day electrical power plant, say with 2-gas turbines and a recovery turbine, that means pushing 3-buttons to take total on-site control over a “Troll” trying to wreck-havoc upon this critical infrastructure. If operators are vigilant and monitoring things, at best a “hack” would last 3-seconds and not enough time to crater the “grid” - as that infrastructure today finds a 6-second inertia reserve. But I have seen a trend over the years, wherein “the buck starts here” CEO board room mentality thinks that sophisticated control equipment the stockholders purchased - not on the cheap - is a substitute for qualified human beings. Which means over time the qualification element goes missing-in-action, as a company can hire lower-wage earning unqualified workers to baby-sit the positions of responsibility, yet would find panic if asked to run the shop. At one time, states demanded these control room operators to be licensed in a 3-Tier qualification ranking. It was not easy to get a 1^st Class endorsement and to achieve such a status, it meant an understanding of the equipment inside and out. In fact, tougher than a 4-year engineering degree. Bottom-line, if we have let down our guard and a vulnerability exists, blame it on the management and stockholders because of the “Bottom-line”! The solution to this headache worry, training with testing with maybe bringing back that “licensing” requirement. Sometimes regulations make sense. And maybe we are seeing the same with the “Wall Street” and computerized gambling. See, the Dow and other swingers today are controlled by computerized buys & sells. Now the algorithms that are designed to provide some stability are based on historical ups and downs, normal trading fundamentals that is. And over time, these mathematical coordinators must be retuned to provide compensation for new unknowns - and that is where we are at today, as the “Markets” are in chaos and nobody has the balls to take control over the computerized mindset, and why not? Just like in the power industry we get comfortable letting somebody else do the dirty work and when the guy that busted his ass is sick, in this day and age we do not see that camaraderie of old, like when “Unions” ruled as organized labor insured that all its members are well trained. Nothing can hurt a “Union” more then providing unqualified workers, the reason organized labor is more costly - it is the training element that adds to the cost of doing business, but you get what you pay for - and does “comfort factor” ring a bell? “Unions” have been busted, and today with this “Right to Work”, well it means anybody can become “President” and just hope everything works on “Piss-ant Autopilot”.