The key is that was a substation and there was no cascading failure. There has to be thousands of those in this country. The nuclear devices now deployed are not massive enough to take down the grid. That ignores the large weapon the Soviet Union developed and tested between 50 and 58 megatons. I doubt we’ll see something like that from the renegade nuclear powers.
A Carrington Event is something else again. That is unpredictable AFAIK. Whether that was the greatest since the Earth started supporting life is also unknown.
There is a study which explores the potential effects. Generally the southern portions of the US would not be affected as severely as the northernmost portions. I’d worry more about another Carrington Event. Any renegade attack would do more damage using a dirty weapon rather than go for a 4th of July show and tell.
Correct - there was no cascading failure .
But as I recall , it was close to it but PG&E continued to support and hold up the grid at that time .
I believe that this sub-station also powers industries in the Silicon Valley . Since the attack occurred at 1 AM, and involved approximately 120 rounds fired at the sub-station,
involved entering 2 manholes to cut security fiber optic cables
leads me to believe that this was no accident , nor a drunken prank .