You can have all the technology in the world, but without brute strength it won't get you anywhere.

It took them something like 3 weeks to get the replacement from California. I bet if they lost several, it would take a lot longer to find replacements for all of them.

When I drive by some of the local substations, I usually find myself thinking that a couple dozen people with a few basic tools and some C4 could literally force the evacuation of the metro area. Disable all refrigeration, air conditioning, internet, etc, for several weeks, in, say July?

Maybe they're better protected than I think, but all I see from the road is a wall with some razor wire.

All you have to do is get enough metal in there without killing yourself, the power from the grid itself will do the rest. If you're willing to kill yourself, land a small plane on top of one, dragging as much chain as the plane will lift. I imagine just a few bullet holes, if you hit copper wire and not the iron core, will produce some pretty spectacular self-heating.

If there were a real army, you could do this at tens of thousands of sites, from the smallest up, and it might be decades before the country had normal power again. More likely they'd modernize.

Shimon Tzabar suggests the ideal war to lose is one that destroys your infrastructure and compels the victors to replace it with up-to-date infrastructure.

Doh!