system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5, how can an electrical grid be “minutes away” from month long blackouts? What would’ve happened that devoted employees avoided?

I’ve seen lots of posts lately on Texas being “minutes and seconds away” from months long blackouts. What could’ve happened, what was avoided that caused that?
gpt
Operators shut down switching equipment that was very close to overloading.  Well, "seconds" may have been hyperbolic, but this equipment is extremely specialized and there are not huge stockpiles of unused equipment waiting for someone to want it.  Losing too much switching equipment might lead to months of rolling blackouts as replacement equipment was manufactured.

Most world power grids are susceptible to this sort of thing, nobody has a spare power grid to use for fallback.  A large solar storm or coronal mass ejection could fry enough transformers that it would take months for worldwide power to return to normal.