Hello,

I'm a writer currently writing a novel and I was wondering if it is theoretically possible to cause a one time widespread EMP from all power lines in a city. I would even accept a somewhat fictional explanation of this happening. Would it be possible to dump extra voltage into a power plant, causing a voltage spike into all grids which would create a one time EMP, city wide? Please excuse my lack of understanding of electromagnetism. I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks!

Wick

Look up magnetic induction... its basically how electricity is generated... and what an EMP is and how it causes damage. And you will also see you don't have to be on the grid or even plugged in for damage to occur.

Thanks for the response. I think what I'm really wondering is could the power grid itself create an EMP? Could a large enough power surge create a strong magnetic field that could then create a pulse from the power lines themselves?

Nope... you need something that generates a very strong and very quickly formed and/or a very quickly collapsing magnetic field. Everythign in that field that has a wire and votage sensitive compaonent will be damaged.

Integrated circuits like computer chipes have wires inside.

Power surge won't do it... though a power surge can damage anything sensitive connected... it won't generate an EMP or much of a magnetic field.

Something large enough to effect a city would have to be a nuclear explosion....based on todays technology.

For something far smaller and very localized...there are other options.

Okay, thanks for the info

I would agree that the idea is a bit far-fetched. A surge ofvoltage would not cause an EMP - at least not by itself. What's needed is a surge in current. To create an EMP of large enough magnitude to cause widespread outagedamage would require a surge of current that would have to be - well, tremendous. If we assume for a moment that somehow such a surge in current could be generated at the power station, I think that the would likely cause the wires to burn out rather than carry that current to cause the EMP. All electrical wires have some level of resistance, and that resistance causes heat to be generated when current runs through them. The level of heat produced in Watts is I^2R, where I is the current (in amps) and R is the resistance (in ohms). If you increase I by, say, a factor of 100, then the heat generated in the wires goes up by 10,000. This would cause the conductors to fuse open. I'm afraid that the electrical grid is just too fragile to make this a real possibility.

Far fetched is actually what I'm looking for in my fictional book. So you're saying the resistance would be so high that it would just fry the grid before it could even generate a magnetic field. I might be able to have the suspension of disbelief in the average reader that the grid could sustain a small emp burst quickly before dying out.

What could possibly create a large enough surge of current at a power station? Even in a fictional setting where a military would have the money of an entire country to create a surge.

Thanks