What Happens During a Blackout

In recent years, power blackouts in Europe and North America have given a lasting impression of the vulnerability of modern and high-technology societies. Although these outages did not last longer than a week and were locally limited, they already caused massive functional or supply disruptions, risks to public safety and damages running into billions. This book reveals possible consequences of a prolonged and widespread power outage for society and its critical infrastructures and it shows how Germany is prepared for such a disaster. By means of comprehensive impact analyses, the authors demonstrate dramatically that even after a few days only it is no longer possible to ensure that goods and services that are vitally necessary to the public are supplied as needed throughout the area affected. Moreover, it is revealed that further efforts must be made to improve the resilience of critical infrastructures and to further optimize the capacities of the national system of disaster management.