Power outage calculations

[Vzearr]

Introduction​

We all know calculations like these. I believe these calculations are flawed, and shouldn't be calculated, heres why:

I don't think that you would necessarily need to apply the amount of energy required to power a place for a day to cause an outage to that place for a day. Wouldn't you need to absorb the amount of energy powering the grid at that specific moment to stop its energy supply? The only time you’d need the energy of a full days powering would be if you siphoned off every bit of energy produced by the grid continuously over a full day, which is pretty baseless for most feats.

Agnaa said he disagrees, but also said he dislikes calculations like this: Really, you'd just need to damage some relevant infrastructure, which would require a highly specific amount of energy.​

Resolution​

Stop calculating feats like this, and remove all current calculations of feats like this.

​

 

[Agnaa]

I think the issue's worse than presented; the calc linked doesn't even indicate that the place had an outage for a day.

A bunch of lights (not even all of them) go out, a sector of the city at a time. 40 seconds later, we see it still on in another person's place, before it turns off there too.

While the music video cuts out there, in the actual episode, in the very next scene we see electricity still being on, powering lights. A minute later, we get a shot of the skyline showing some lights being on in windows.

So yeah, I think we should stop using these feats. The calculation method is fundamentally flawed (blackouts aren't caused by draining the energy for the blackout period in one instant; that's physically incoherent, so even if a series implies that we shouldn't use it, that much energy does not exist in the grid at that time), a good replacement doesn't exist (it's highly grid-specific which points need what amount of energy to shut down the ability for it to provide power, and the time it takes to come back up is typically just based on repair infrastructure), and many of these feats don't remotely substantiate the way they're calculated.

 

[Vzearr]

@DontTalkDT @Executor_N0 @Spinosaurus75DinosaurFan @Therefir @Ugarik @DMUA @TheRustyOne @DemonGodMitchAubin @Jasonsith @Wokistan @Armorchompy @Migue79 @Psychomaster35 @CloverDragon03 @Dark-Carioca @AbaddonTheDisappointment @Aguywhodoesthings @Dalesean027 @DemiiPowa @Flashlight237 @SeijiSetto @SunDaGamer (Sorry)

 

[Flashlight237]

Yeah, I think I can agree with the... Ban might be too harsh of wording for it. Just converting the kilowatt-hour values to joules and calling it a day would have been closer to home with how we handle wattages.

I ain't exactly well-versed with electricity feats, though. A power grid is fairly big stuff, but at the same time, we don't really give anyone durability for tanking electricity.

 

[TheRustyOne]

I complete agree with this.

I've always found these types of feat to be very iffy at best.

 

[DMUA]

Really, you'd just need to damage some relevant infrastructure, which would require a highly specific amount of energy.

Yeah

I think I might have inadvertently caused this by referencing the fact power grids can have a large sum of energy and thus it'd be a feat, but I also have no idea what their maximum capacity is before they break. Someone should probably figure that out

 

[CloverDragon03]

There are like, a few fringe cases where I could see calcs like this having merit, so I think it's ridiculous to outright "ban" a calc method. For example, in Pokémon, Electivire is stated to be able to produce electricity that can power an entire city for a year. Like any method, it should just be evaluated to see if it's actually appropriate to use, and if it's not then we simply axe the calc.

 

[Agnaa]

There are like, a few fringe cases where I could see calcs like this having merit, so I think it's ridiculous to outright "ban" a calc method. For example, in Pokémon, Electivire is stated to be able to produce electricity that can power an entire city for a year. Like any method, it should just be evaluated to see if it's actually appropriate to use, and if it's not then we simply axe the calc.

I think we can consider "can power a grid for a year" to not be hit by a ban on "calcs for causing power outages".

 

[Flashlight237]

Yeah

I think I might have inadvertently caused this by referencing the fact power grids can have a large sum of energy and thus it'd be a feat, but I also have no idea what their maximum capacity is before they break. Someone should probably figure that out

As someone who is working for an electrical company, the way I put it, the amperage ratings on breakers (whether it's 15A or 20A) is usually the absolute limit a breaker can handle at any given time before A. the breaker shuts off, or B. an electrical fire starts. I looked it up and a breaker would generally shut off the power supply starting at 80% the listed amperage rating. The company I work for typically makes 240/120V breaker panels (residential breakres), 120/208V breaker panels, or 480/277V breaker panels. I don't have much tenure (I enter my second year next February), so I don't know how much these voltage ratings affect the idea of shutting off entire breakers.

Shutting off power for an entire grid at the source (power plants) is a whole nother ball game that I wouldn't be able to reach, however.

 

[Vzearr]

Bump.