Grid-Tied system and EOTWAWKI?

[Klapton]

I'm currently making plans to sell my suburban home next year, and homestead somewhere as remote as reasonably possible. My tele-commuting job is what will make this possible. And because I use voice communications (Skype) for my work, satellite internet will not be possible. I will need some form of broadband, which means I will be close enough to civilization to probably have grid power too. So, what does this have to do with anything?

One of my reasons for wanting to homestead is a desire for TRUE self-sufficiency and preparedness. Even if I have access to the grid, I want to generate my own power. So, most likely, I would have a grid-tied system. So here, finally, is my question:

If I have a grid-tied system, what happens if something horrible happens to the grid? (Terrorist attack, total economic collapse -- whatever). If I was a net producer of power, would my stuff still work? Or would I have to have some contingency plan or alternate setup to be able to run off-grid in such a situation?

[12vman]

Plan to be totally of the grid from the start! If you have a grid interconnect system, when the grid goes down, so do you! :o

[mistyriver]

We are talking about tying to the grid (we're off grid now) at some point and though I can't give you the particulars because the power set-up is my electrical engineer husband's domain, he says if the grid power goes out our system would disconnect from the grid and our solar/batteries and inverter would take over.

[jott]

Yes you can have a grid tied system that can disconnect and keep working if you have batteries. However most systems sold as grid tied do not have batteries and therefore will not work if the grid goes down.

[Klapton]

Thanks for the replies.