>>These repairs take time.
>
>I guess this depends on a number of factors:
>
>- size
>- Security measures
>- Ad-hoc repairs or long term repairs
>- Type of fuel (oil, coal, nucluear, Water, wind, solar), etc.
>
>It does not neccesarely means that the infrastrature is repaired, but maybe replaced by huge numbers of generators, getting rid of single point of failure. Again I think you would be suprised how inventive people are in getting arround problems they need to solve quickly.

Basically you're both right. The system can be damaged so that the repairs take quite a long time, but it can be patched to work in almost no time.

Our electrical system was exploited but not really maintained during the sanctions - because electricity was the only export that couldn't be stopped at the borders. So Sloba forced all the plants to produce as much as they could, but didn't really pour money into regular repairs. In the winter of 94/5 and the next winter he actually sold more electricity than there was surplus, so he claimed we had a shortage - and we were without power about 8 hours a day, then 12 hours.

It took a couple of years after his fall to get the system to be reliable as it once was. Not sure the effects of a decade of almost no maintenance are completely countered yet, but as I hear, there hasn't been any more powerouts than here.