As Worries Over the Power Grid Rise, a Drill Will Simulate a Knockout Blow
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/us/as-worries-over-the-power-grid-rise-a-drill-will-simulate-a-knockout-blow.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0WASHINGTON — The electric grid, as government and private experts describe it, is the glass jaw of American industry. If an adversary lands a knockout blow, they fear, it could black out vast areas of the continent for weeks; interrupt supplies of water, gasoline, diesel fuel and fresh food; shut down communications; and create disruptions of a scale that was only hinted at by Hurricane Sandy and the attacks of Sept. 11.
This is why thousands of utility workers, business executives, National Guard officers, F.B.I. antiterrorism experts and officials from government agencies in the United States, Canada and Mexico are preparing for an emergency drill in November that will simulate physical attacks and cyberattacks that could take down large sections of the power grid.
They will practice for a crisis unlike anything the real grid has ever seen, and more than 150 companies and organizations have signed up to participate.
Should be quite the deal...
We are fighting a 80 mile long 345kV line through the Boston Mountains in the Ozarks. This is the oldest mountain in the world and is so precious and fragile, riddled with limestone caves and home to hundreds of species of flora and fauna indigenous to this mountain. We are home to the last of many others as well. It seems that the whole world has gone crazy for money. Instead of doing the right thing of protecting what is left, moving to renewable energy, feeding the hungry and housing the poor, we build things that are targets for terrorism which will cripple many places all at once.
= new reply since forum marked as read
will notice? 
But, I wonder what will go wrong.
The real weakness in the electrical system is the North East (Boston- NYC-Washington DC) and the Midwest (Pittsburgh, Chicago and Minneapolis). The route between these two sections are limited,
1. along the Monongahela and then the Pontiac Rivers,
2. along the Allegheny and Susquehanna Rivers,
3. Via the Mohawk Valley in upper New York State, between NYC, Boston and Toronto Ontario (and centered around Niagara Falls).
There is some overlap between the three system (with the biggest amount of overlap and interconnections between the first two)
And everyone who has read anything about this knows this unpleasant fact. The Ozarks, being a break away part of Appalachian Mountains (Telling you high old are both sets of mountains, along with the Highlands of Scotland, another part of the Appalachian Mountains that broke away a very long time ago) is a good substitute for the Appalachian Mountains that separate the North West from the Mid-West. In many ways the Appalachian Mountains are the weak point, for their are the hardest part of the system to access.
Just pointing out how much power is used in the Northeast and Mid West, Those are HUGE power lines, Texas is the only area that comes close and if you look at area around Pittsburgh, you see is is just massive in that area (Most are tied in with the Steel Industry, built before the collapse of steel in the early 1980s, but other industrial users then used the power).
Please note, the start of any electrical problems will be elsewhere. In 2003 it was a surge of power to Ontario that started the 2003 Blackout.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003
In 1965 it was a Rely was set to low, and stopped the flow of power from Niagara falls to Ontario, this lead power surges elsewhere that broke down the system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_1965
List of other major blackouts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_power_outages