Weak Security For America’s Electric Grid Makes Us Vulnerable
The U.S. conducts airstrikes in Syria to prevent terrorist acts here at home. At the same time, U.S. utilities leverage a weak regulatory process to minimize responsibility for protecting critical electric grid facilities.
Overseas military action is not enough to protect the public. We also need effective defensive measures for our critical infrastructure, starting with the grid upon which modern life depends. Unfortunately, electric grid security is weak, and the regulatory process is failing.
The vulnerability of America’s electric grid is well-known. In March 2014, a leaked staff analysis from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) revealed that an attack on only nine critical transformer substations could bring down our continental grid for 18 months.
According to this federal grid regulator, an attack on just four substations could black out the grid from the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast. An attack on just three could black out California and 10 other western states. Replacing the custom-made transformers to restore power would take months, using equipment primarily from foreign suppliers.
Repeated incidents at grid facilities have already demonstrated the feasibility of coordinated attack using just a few operatives. In June 2014, intruders cut the fence at a generation plant in the border city of Nogales, Ariz., and executed an incendiary attack.
In April 2013, snipers shot out 17 high-voltage transformers at the Metcalf substation outside of San Jose, Calif., nearly causing a blackout for Silicon Valley and San Francisco.
Despite publicity, security remains lax. In an embarrassing episode just before Labor Day, thieves cut the fence at Metcalf, stayed on site for 45 minutes and departed with construction equipment. Pacific Gas & Electric admitted that alarms had sounded at their control center, but 24-hour private guards never responded.
Over the summer, actress Kelly Carlson took a film crew to transformer substations in California and Arizona. In a YouTube video, Carlson says that she feared arrest during her project to publicize electric grid vulnerabilities.
She holds a certification as a security guard and points out, “One of the things you need to do as a guard is approach anybody staring at your facility with a camera and question them and then call authorities.” The film crew stood at substation fences for over an hour but was never confronted by guards or local authorities.
The federal process to regulate electric grid security is badly broken. Responsibility for setting grid security standards has been delegated to an industry self-regulatory organization, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).
