I think synchronized operations could really disrupt the grid — think thousands of inverters switching backfeeding to the grid on/off, causing waves and disruption. Or thousands of inverters having their grid sync disabled, simultaneously operating to shift the frequency of the grid (very bad).
I'd be worried about the inverters in large commercial solar plants. On a sunny day you could easily cause a blackout by turning enough solar capacity off at once. Maybe shut down the entire grid when the sudden power imbalances trip the self- protection in half the grid. That's a pain to recover from. Spain went through that not too long ago
But maybe rapidly switching residential solar on and off in a coordinated way can also do funny things to grid equipment
There are always some “stable” power sources kept on standby that can be activated within minutes, for example gas turbines. In European electricity markets, generators can actually be paid simply for keeping this reserve capacity available, even if they are not producing much electricity most of the time.
The problem is that a few minutes is still too slow when a large power source suddenly drops out. The grid needs an immediate response, which can come from fast reserves such as batteries, hydro, pumped storage and other generators that can react automatically.
Pumped storage is basically gravitational energy storage: you pump water uphill when electricity is plentiful, then release it through turbines when power is needed.
Not much if a couple of thousand homes in US switches off. There are way more sensitive targets than ”they could randomly hike the electricity usage with 0,0000000000000000001%”
To piss away decades of hard-earned trust in its products for some short-term one-time political 'pwn' of the enemy.
If that goal sounds stupid to you, that's because it is. I would expect some countries that are not China to act with such a capricious lack of foresight.
They've made no meaningful concessions, and are quietly dumping treasuries. US bond yields are skyrocketing, making it more and more expensive for the US to borrow... Under a president that's pissing away taxpayer money like a drunken sailor.
This isn't some 3D chess move, it's exactly what it looks like.
DDoS, anonymizer proxy, and turn off power in large commercial installations. They kinda deserve it for investing in solar. US holds all the power in social media, can't blame China if they want to utilize their lead in solar for something too.
Hopefully mutually assured annoyance keeps everyone at bay.
If you had enough systems under control in an area, you could probably create a brown out or some other type of scenario by turning off 1000 houses on the right day.
