Explosive Devices Hit Two German Power Substations in a Single Day

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The Ready Brief #188

Practical preparedness for uncertain times

I bought a 1,000-watt-hour power station last year thinking it would run my refrigerator through a 24-hour outage. It lasted 6 hours. The refrigerator draws about 150 watts running but the compressor startup surge pulls 600+ watts, and the duty cycle (how often the compressor runs) meant actual consumption was about 120 to 150 watt-hours per hour. My "1,000-watt-hour" station was sized for about 6 to 8 hours, not 24. The math matters.

Here's what I've got this weekend.

Sizing Your Solar and Battery System to Your Actual Needs

We covered portable power stations (Issue 72), solar panels (Issue 58), and power banks (Issue 147). This week is the math: how to calculate what size battery and solar setup actually covers your household's needs during an outage.

Start with your load list. Write down every device you'd run during an outage and its wattage: phone charger (20W), LED lights (10W each), laptop (60W), fan (40W), CPAP (30 to 60W), refrigerator (100 to 150W average, 600W+ surge), and any medical devices. Add them up. That's your running load in watts.

Multiply running load by hours of use to get watt-hours needed. If you run a refrigerator (150W average), 3 LED lights (30W total), and charge two phones (40W total) for 24 hours, that's 220W times 24 hours equals 5,280 watt-hours. A "1,000Wh" power station covers about 4.5 hours of that load, not 24.

Battery capacity is never fully usable. Lithium batteries shouldn't be discharged below 20% regularly, so a 1,000Wh battery provides about 800Wh of usable capacity. Factor this 80% efficiency into your calculations.

Solar recharging extends your battery life. A 200-watt solar panel produces about 200W times 5 peak sun hours equals 1,000Wh per day in good conditions. On cloudy days, expect 40 to 60% of rated output. So that 200W panel realistically produces 400 to 600Wh per cloudy day and 800 to 1,000Wh per sunny day.

The sizing formula: daily watt-hour need minus daily solar input equals battery capacity needed per night. Using our example: 5,280Wh daily need minus 800Wh solar input equals 4,480Wh of battery needed to cover overnight and cloudy periods. That's a substantial battery bank, likely 2 to 3 large power stations.

The practical approach: reduce your load first, then size the system. Run the refrigerator on a reduced duty cycle (open less frequently). Use LED lights instead of incandescent. Charge devices during peak solar hours. A disciplined load management approach can cut your watt-hour needs by 40 to 60%, dramatically reducing the battery and solar investment required.

Calculate your critical load in watt-hours for a 24-hour outage.

List the devices you'd actually run. Find their wattage (on the label or in the manual). Multiply by hours of use. Add them up. That number is your real power need, and it's probably higher than you assumed.

Russia Strikes Ukraine's Intelligence Headquarters in Kyiv, a First in the War

A Russian Shahed drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) in central Kyiv on September 4, the first known Russian attack on that building in the war. The drone targeted the office of SBU acting chief Oleksandr Poklad, who was not injured; at least 12 people were hurt, 7 of them hospitalized, with no deaths reported. Ukraine's foreign minister called it "a major escalation that demands resolute responses," noting the strike came during a renewed diplomatic push for peace. Government buildings in central Kyiv are rarely reached by daylight strikes, and the attack signals Russia widening its target set toward leadership and decision-making centers rather than only energy and military infrastructure, a new escalation worth tracking as the war enters its fifth year.

Source: Kyiv Independent

EJ Snyder has operated in environments with zero power infrastructure on Naked and Afraid, managing energy budgets of literal calories rather than watt-hours. His principle translates directly: understand your consumption before you invest in production. On his show, he calculates caloric expenditure before deciding how much foraging effort to invest. The same logic applies to electrical preparedness.

Snyder's practical advice: most people overestimate their power production and underestimate their power consumption. The gap between those two estimates is the gap between a power station that lasts and one that dies at 2 AM. Do the math before you buy.

Explosive Devices and Sabotage Hit Two German Power Substations in One Day

On September 1, attackers fired more than a dozen improvised rocket launchers loaded with conductive material at the Turnow-Preilack substation in Brandenburg, which feeds power from the Jänschwalde coal plant, triggering two short-circuits before crews defused the remaining unfired devices. About twelve hours later, a separate attack used six similar launch devices against the Rommerskirchen-Bergheim substation near Cologne, tripping five RWE lignite-fired generating units totaling 4,200 megawatts of capacity. Three of the five units were back online by Wednesday evening; the last isn't expected to return until the following Tuesday. No general-area power supply was affected and no injuries were reported. North Rhine-Westphalia's interior minister said the two attacks show "many parallels" and that investigators are pursuing two leads: state-directed sabotage from abroad and left-wing extremism. The attacks follow a January arson attack that cut power to roughly 100,000 Berlin residents for four days, and add to a total of 321 sabotage cases German federal police recorded against critical infrastructure in 2025 alone.

Source: Euronews, Grosswald

Home Power Audit Spreadsheet

I created a spreadsheet listing every device I'd run during an outage: device name, wattage, hours of daily use, and total watt-hours. The spreadsheet calculates daily consumption automatically. Then I added my solar panel's rated and realistic output. The gap between consumption and production is my battery requirement.

The audit revealed that my refrigerator alone accounts for 60% of my outage power consumption. Reducing its duty cycle (keeping it closed, packing it full) and adding a thermometer to monitor temperature without opening the door cut its consumption by about 30%. The spreadsheet is the tool that made the rest of the math possible. Free.

Budget alternative: A pen-and-paper calculation. Device times watts times hours equals watt-hours. Add them up. Compare to your battery capacity. 15 minutes of math.

Overrated: Buying the biggest power station you can afford without calculating your actual needs. A $2,000 power station that's still undersized is a $2,000 disappointment. A $500 power station that's properly sized to a reduced load is a $500 success.

Underrated: Load reduction as a power strategy. Cutting your consumption in half is equivalent to doubling your battery capacity at zero cost. Discipline is cheaper than lithium.

Mindfulness under pressure. How the mental skills coach behind Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant teaches focus and calm during high-stakes moments.

PS: After the power audit, I sold my undersized 1,000Wh station and bought a 2,000Wh unit paired with a 200W solar panel. The system now covers 18 to 22 hours of my reduced load and recharges to 80% during a sunny day.