United States’ electric grid is at risk
Unknown assailants attacked two electric substations in Moore County, N.C., two weeks ago, using firearms to damage critical components and cut power to about 45,000 people for several days. While law enforcement officials are so far reluctant to say it, this was an act of terrorism.
It has been clear for years that the nation’s dated and deteriorating power grid is vulnerable to cyber and conventional threats, but government officials and utility companies have failed to take appropriate action to protect it. That must change, and the nation invites further incidents such as this — attacks that paralyze communities, endanger lives and come at a tremendous cost.
On Dec. 3, Duke Energy reported the failure of a substation in Carthage, N.C., about an hour northwest of Fayetteville. A second substation followed, which resulted in a countywide blackout. Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields described what happened as “intentional vandalism” involving gunfire that resulted in severe damage to key power components that would take days to repair.
The effects were widespread and profound — schools and businesses were forced to close, those in need of critical health care were evacuated, several car accidents were reported and emergency shelters were opened to protect residents from cold temperatures.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. In fact, conventional attacks on the power grid happen with regularity and growing frequency. Extremists — typically rightwing zealots seeking to foment a civil war — have increasingly viewed attacks on critical infrastructure as a way to advance their divisive and dangerous cause.
In February, three white supremacists pleaded guilty to federal charges in a plot to destroy power substations “to damage the economy and stoke division in our country.” Six substations in Oregon and Washington were attacked in November; at least six others in Florida were the subject of “substation intrusion events” in September, according to Duke Energy officials.
These all follow a 2013 unsolved attack on a substation in Metcalf, Calif., that serves Silicon Valley. In 19 minutes, perpetrators fired about 100 shots from outside the station’s perimeter fencing, disabling 17 transformers. It took 27 days for the station to resume operations.
The Metcalf attack — which Jon Wellinghoff, then chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), called “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred” in the United States — was a wake-up call. It prompted federal authorities to conduct a thorough review of the power grid’s vulnerabilities, which resulted in deeply worrisome findings.
The FERC reported that a coordinated strike against as few as nine of the nation’s 55,000 electric-transmission substations — four on the East Coast grid, three on the West Coast grid and two in Texas, which maintains a separate grid — could knock out power nationwide for months.
It also spurred FERC to encourage the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit corporation founded by the power industry responsible for ensuring reliability, to strengthen rules governing the protection of substations. But those rules, adopted in 2014, prioritize essential facilities and exempt smaller ones, such as those in Moore County.
To their credit, utility companies have invested heavily in grid security — Dominion Power pledged to spend up to $500 million — and federal measures, such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, appropriate billions for grid modernization and protection.
Obviously, building castle-like walls around every rural substation isn’t practical or financially feasible. But as these threats escalate, it makes clear that requiring security measures for a greater number of substations — and providing the money to protect them — is a must.
Nine years after a substation attack sent utility companies and federal regulators into panic, thousands of North Carolinians were plunged into darkness, putting their lives and livelihoods at risk.
Unless this nation takes seriously the need to prioritize grid security and backs that urgency with swift action, more Americans will surely face a similar fate — or worse.
Extremists — typically right-wing zealots seeking to foment a civil war — have increasingly viewed attacks on critical infrastructure as a way to advance their divisive and dangerous cause.