Begs the question as to why pointless “security” questions were asked though.
I was just glad to get access to my money. I presumed that the man I was talking to still had to go through the motions but used questions that I could not fail to answer. The original questions would have been straightforward enough for most people but my situation at the time was a bit complicated. The man who eventually sorted it out was in the CEO’s office and answered the call with those two words. I had phoned the number I’d got from the internet out of desperation. I had not really expected to get anywhere if anyone actually answered the phone and thought that at best I would be told to use the normal channels or visit my branch. The nice man whoever he was decided to help out which helped me considerably.
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With the idea that we green up to save the world, I think this clusterfuck demonstrates how fragile that world could be. How on earth can a power cut intervene across 3 countries? My friend in Spain is still without power. Kicking the grid back into life wont be instant either. Hopefully some have retained their petrol cars along side their EV’s
I would be extremely surprised if this were an ordinary accident. Not looking for a conspiracy theory, but unless those national systems somehow have no redundancy at all built in, I cannot believe they just failed through a bit of strange atmospheric behaviour.
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Bicycles too. When you see how many cyclists there are in asian countries, it does make you think about what happens if there is no power because petrol/Diesel also needs power to use service station’s fuel pumps. I don’t believe this was a simple dépannage, surely the grids are too sophisticated for that to happen and maybe it was/is a prelude to something to come without annoying the more powerful nations. I still stand by my suggestion that everyone keeps a few hundred euros cash indoors so they can buy food and other essentials still. In fact, I am going to get a bit out tomorrow just incase this happens again and we get caught out.
How will they fill up if there’s no power for the petrol stations?
Agreed, but with at least a tank full or even half you have some considerable mobility. Of course self generation and battery storage is still the way to go IMO.
It’s probably a consequence of rural living but at any time I have enough basic foods including things in the freezer and tinned fruit and vegetables to last me over a month if I had to. With a well and a logburner I would be pretty self sufficient all round. I tend to top up my vehicles early as well so wouldn’t fret about getting around locally. I never keep more than about €50-60 in cash but I can’t see myself changing that. I would have to hope for some sunshine though because I only have one small but efficient solar panel to top up my electrical devices and battery packs.
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In other words, much the same as a fully-charged EV? Given that my EV is basically plugged in whenever I’m at home, it’s usually fully charged or very close to it at any given point in time.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a petrol car too, so I’m not being evangelistic but it’s a bit of a logic failure to assume that an ICE is going to be much, or any, better off in the event of total grid failure unless it’s sufficiently long-term that we start to setup gravity-fed petrol stations. I’d suggest, if we get to that point then we have bigger problems than personal mobility.
One of the interesting things was the parents of my Portuguese colleague who have solar found their solar was also off, presumably because it feeds the mains.
As for petrol Vs EV, it will always be possible to hand-pump fuel in an emergency.
Thanks John, I was playing devils advocate, when you see the vehicle to load feature it becomes ever more important.
Back to the days of the old foot pump for tyres too! Wonder if there are still pumps about now everyone uses the ones in service stations or like us, a compressor we kept from our business, although, wait a minute you need electric to fill the tank first DOH!
Sounds like a system connection issue by the installer, failed at the point it would be needed. 1st principle ignored by installer?
Well they always manage to do that in disaster/dytopian films and Mad Max.
No tills operating no sale!
Some cheap self-install systems only operate if there is mains power present to ensure that nothing can be fed back down the line during a power cut and put maintenance workers at risk.
As @Corona says, proper systems are a bit more sophisticated and will continue to run the house but will prevent anything being fed back into the grid.
I meant air tank, not fuel tank 
Friends in Spain just got power back!
And we’re without power at ours again, but due to chaps in a cherry picker re-stringing the power lines damaged in the photo above and not due to Russia, China, aliens or the WEF.
I’m in Spain at the moment. Yesterday we were in a shopping centre in Cartagena when we noticed some shops had lost power, but not all, on the face it. We went off to find a bar with power for coffee and beer several miles away but the waitress who served us said that all Spain was down as well as Portugal France and Germany. We bought an instant barbecue and some candles, and went home to wait for the power to come back - 6 to 10 hours was the forecast. It was rather odd as the power came back on bit by bit. We were in darkness but could see the resorts a few miles away had the lights back on. Many businesses had generators. I can’t say if it’s a regular occurrence or not.
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