Old grid security news still matters for this summer
Tom KirkmanIndependent Project Manager
This is old news, from 2014. But it doesn’t seem that the U.S. government has actually done much to improve the security of the national electric grid.
Why am I writing about old news? Because it is still relevant today, as I brace for rolling power blackouts this summer in the U.S. – caused by increased reliance on intermittent, unreliable energy from wind and solar.
California already admits that it will not have sufficient electricity this summer (see my earlier post today). Open link ↗
If there is also a cyber attack on the U.S. electric grid this summer, it would make the recent oil pipeline cyber attack look like child’s play.
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“The possibility of a terrorist attack knocking out the power grid makes for a good headline, but could it really happen? The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) says yes.
If terrorists are ever able to knock out nine of the nation’s 55,000 substations, the U.S. power grid could suffer coast-to-coast blackouts lasting 18 months or more, according to leaked excerpts from a FERC report.”