Hi, in my country we do not have many long lasting power blackouts. People tend to get their forks and their firebrands if power is out for more than 15 or 20 minutes. I even can't remember the last blackout. Must have been last year or so. In the eighties of the last century I lived in a more rural area. After a blizzard we had no electricity for two weeks. That was fun, because we could cook and heat with a stove at that time. Anyways, here in Europe the power supply systems are connected. If it comes to the point when more power is requested than it is available in the grid, the grid is split and split and split until the power plants are running only to produce on-site power. One can reach this state if only a few blocks of the major nuclear power plants, like Cattenom, are switch off without warning. I must confess I'm waiting for that situation . Imagine the view from space then. Europe will be as dark as the african continent is. You can see the stars and the milky way, even from major cities. On the flip side we will have panic and looting. Regards Gyro