@solominer I agree on what you said about the magnitude of the EMP needed to affect high-voltage power lines. That's going to need a pretty substantial power source, especially considering we're talking about a non-nuclear EMP here. Also, the government says the supposed aircraft actually hovered over the lines in order to emit the "electromagnetic waves". Hovering would mean either a helicopter or a drone, and I don't know how feasible it would be to deliver the EMP without affecting the electronic systems of the aircraft itself. I'm not an engineer either, so I admit I could be way off here.
But the main issue with which I agree is that the root of the problem is really a lack of maintenance and redundancy. Hydroelectric power is great, but it's always good to have backup. Theoretically we have some backup capacity in our thermoelectric power plants, but those aren't functioning due to lack of maintenance too. But there is something I've been saying for over 15 years... We live in the tropics. So, where are the investments in solar power? We receive enough sunlight all year round to be independent of both thermo and hydroelectric.
@jesced
Yeah a helicopter sounds fishy, I think the turbines probably overheated and caught on fire due to poor maintenance. Which may surge lines and blow them out before it fully fails.
Solar is great but its hard to capture the un-used power it and keep it in storage. Batteries are not very efficient and its probably why solar has not caught on for large scale uses. Many small projects its fine for but when you deal with cities the amount of batteries you would need would be impossible.