The issue with this specific outage is that it was badly managed.
The main gripe people and authorities have with what happened is that key infrastructures immediately lost power. When (only) 5% of demand is turned off this should not impact railways, airports, and hospitals.
Beyond the initial loss of power other problems amplified the consequences: For example, trains could not just restart but required specialist staff to attend each of them to get them through a specific procedure, which turned a short power loss into hours of delays.
This highlights the importance of looking at systems globally. The grid is just one part of the system.
The main gripe people and authorities have with what happened is that key infrastructures immediately lost power. When (only) 5% of demand is turned off this should not impact railways, airports, and hospitals.
Beyond the initial loss of power other problems amplified the consequences: For example, trains could not just restart but required specialist staff to attend each of them to get them through a specific procedure, which turned a short power loss into hours of delays.
This highlights the importance of looking at systems globally. The grid is just one part of the system.