A Call to Regulators: Do More to Protect Electricity Infrastructure

America’s electricity infrastructure is vulnerable to physical attack. And while federal regulators have known this for years, they’ve been slow to compel security upgrades.

1 minute read

March 17, 2014, 12:00 PM PDT

By Anna Bergren Miller @abergrenmiller


A confidential Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report disclosed in the Wall Street Journal last week revealed that a coordinated attack on as few as nine specific substations could cause coast-to-coast blackouts. Yet FERC hadn’t updated its rules concerning physical security until last month, when the news media reported on an April 2013 shooting attack on 17 California substations.

“[T]he commission’s efforts to improve security is a welcome development,” the Los Angeles Times editorial board writes. “but as part of that work, FERC should also address the frightening challenges posed by the grid’s reliance on custom-fitted equipment that can take months, if not years, to replace.”

Sunday, March 16, 2014 in Los Angeles Times

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