One is often cautioned about citing personal experience to support larger claims.
Which, of course, is exactly what I'll do next
Voltage dips? Been there. Coming from outside? Sure thing? How far outside? Maybe 200 yards.
Something as simple as tree limbs rubbing on the feeder from the nearest transformer to min, and several, homes. Both "hot" wires damaged to the point that only a few strands of conductor remained. Trim trees, replace wires, and all is well.
This is hardly some sort of vague problem originating in the 'national grid.'
Remember, the national grid is only the name we give the millions of parts that connect to each other. The 'grid' itself can only be in trouble if a huge percentage of those individual parts are themselves in trouble. THAT's why the reformers' actions to limit maintenance are so dangerous.
When you fail to regularly maintain stuff that 'isn't broke,' you set the stage for lots of things to wear out at the same time. Reformers have guaranteed this result, by preventing the utilities from working on anything until after it breaks.
The 'grid' wasn't built in a day - nor will it fail 'overnight.' It WILL fail if we continue to let it fall apart. That catastrophic failure will only be the end result of decades of "deferred maintenance" ... another term for 'neglect.'
The solution lies not in some new bureaucracy, new rules, or miracle technology. The solution is to get out of the way, and let utilities do their jobs. This means paying them MORE today, so they can upgrade - effectively 'fixing' things before they break.
What we have now is the equivalent of not letting someone change their oil until their engine seizes up. Let them maintain the engine, and it will perform better and last longer - much, much longer.
While we're at it, we need to ask ourselves WHY the reformers WANT the grid to fail. Only then can we understand our enemy.