Maya’s heart sank. Lakeside Unit 7 provided 400 MW of power to the downtown metro area. Without it, and with two lines already down, the remaining lines would overload within seconds of the trip.

She handed the plan to the operator. He raised an eyebrow. "You sure, kid?"

PSSE ran an with security constraints. It churned through millions of possible re-dispatch combinations—raising generation at three remote wind farms, lowering it at another gas plant, and shifting phase-shifting transformers.

Unit 7 tripped exactly on schedule. The lights in the city flickered for 0.3 seconds—and stayed on.

Maya stared at the blinking red alert on her screen. It was 11:47 PM. She was the junior grid reliability engineer for a regional transmission organization, and tonight was her first solo shift.

She had to find an answer—or the city would face a blackout.

Then she remembered the training.