Considering the noises made by the authorities regarding the substantial threat due to cybersecurity issues and the so called 'terrorist and cyber-warfare' threats, perhaps someone should point out that computers and communications network infrastructures still rely on the technology from the turn of the 20th century for their successful operation. i.e. The electrical grid power generation and transmission network.

Bootstrapping a black start power transmission network would be a ugly business. As has been seen at Fukushima, a batch of boiling water nuclear reactors melted down because essentially grid power was lost to keep the cooling systems working and the on site backups failed i.e. Battery and Diesel Generators failed.

All it takes for example in the UK is for the the 50Hz Frequency to deviate either way by 1.5 Hz (48.5Hz or 51.5Hz) and the a wide area Blackout in the UK will occur. The frequency changes are due to a mismatch between the capacity of the generation supply and the load.

Relaxing the frequency standards of the power transmission network just makes the chances of an external disturbance i.e. a repeat of the 1858 Carrington event, have a greater probability of knocking the network down (risking complete network blackout requiring black start and critical nuclear accidents) due to its less resilience capacity to external influences.

Its the classic safety versus cost situation once again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_8h_twNP_0