How Vulnerable is the U.S. Power Grid?
Key Takeaways & Action Steps from the Grid Down, Power Up Documentary
The power grid of the United States & its susceptibility to both physical & cyber attack as well as infrastructure failure has been at the forefront of my mind since a late afternoon gym session had me finishing my upper-body day in near-total darkness. It was August 14, 2003, when an overgrown tree branch hit a power line in Cleveland, Ohio causing a massive blackout in eight northeast states to include; New York, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, & Connecticut. In total, more than 55 million people were suddenly without power. Over the course of two days (30 hours for NYC), residents had to be evacuated from subway trains, citizens began directing traffic, & grocery stores attempted to sell their frozen foods before they spoiled. What have we learned from this incident over the past 20 years? Has anything changed? If 50 million people could be effected by ONE single tree branch across eight states, what will happen if the United States is attacked by an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) or a natural solar event occurs? It’s not like we’re fanning the flames of war with China or Russia or anything…riiiight.
Last night, I tuned in to one of my preparedness YouTube channels & discovered a recently released call-to-action documentary about the United States power grid called ‘Grid Down, Power Up’ featuring Dennis Quaid. After watching the documentary, I am compelled to share this information with my fellow Warriors because the takeaways from this video effect each & every one of us. There are steps we can take to not only let our elected representatives know the seriousness of this issue, but also to protect ourselves when the government refuses to acknowledge or take action on the problem.
A Summary of the Video:
Congressional Report: A North Korean EMP Attack Would Kill “90% of all Americans” (10/16/2017): a headline read after an in-depth report titled ‘Assessing the Threat from Electromagnetic Pulse’ from a congressionally mandated EMP Commission was released which assessed the threat of an EMP attack on the United States. The Commission performed exhaustive studies including experimentation & testing.
Humans can Perish After Three Days Without Water in which municipal treatment plants rely on electricity for operation. Heat, fuel for vehicles, transportation for food restocking, all rely to some extent on electricity. No food, no power, no money, & no transportation for three weeks would lead to massive civil unrest. Imagine being without power for up to 18 months? 18 months is the average length of time it takes to build a new electric transformer station.
Texas Grid Collapse: During the Texas Grid Collapse in February of 2021, over 210 people perished, 8.7 million people were under boil water notice, & just three days after the blackout all of the grocery stores had empty shelves. Texas was just 4 minutes and 37 seconds from a total power grid collapse which would have prolonged the crisis for three weeks or more.
A Short-Term Interruption (2-3 days) - ~ 200 Deaths
Long-Term Outage (1-2 years) - ~10,000,000 + Deaths
The United States Power Grid: is comprised of those systems which generate, transmit, & distribute power. In the United States, the Power Grid is supported by over 3,000 companies in both the public & private sector. There are three independent regional grids:
Eastern Interconnection
Western Interconnection
Texas Grid
Image Credit: PolitiFact
Extra High Voltage Transformers (work horses of the grid) - interconnect power lines all across the country. Transformers convert raw electricity from power plants into higher or lower voltages for uses in homes, commercial office buildings, & factories. Extra High Voltage Transformers weigh hundreds of tons & are so massive freeways have to be shut down to deliver them on oversize load tractor trailers. Existing power infrastructure such as stop lights & electrical wires have to be temporarily relocated to accommodate delivery of the transformers to their final destination.
Extra High Voltage Transformers are NOT manufactured in the United States! It will take approximately 18 months to replace one transformer. The country could not survive that long without power for even six months.
Utility Companies Have Imported approximately 300 (that we know about) High Voltage Transformers from China & approximately 200 have been connected to the United States power grid. There are currently no security examination/testing requirements for these transformers.
A Chinese company, JiangSu HuaPeng Transformer Co., Ltd., claims that 10% of New York City’s electricity runs through its transformers. - Feb 2021
It is estimated Chinese transformers supply power to 20% of Las Vegas.
Terror Attacks on the United States Power Grid
Between 2010 and 2020, there were more than 700 documented attacks on the United States power grid.
“Sniper Attack on Silicon Valley, California Power Station Raises Terrorism Fears” - April 6, 2013. At the PG&E substation, telephone cables were cut near the substation at 0058 hours. At 0131 hours, gunmen fire multiple times at the 17 transformers within the substation. At 0146 hours, transformers began to fail. Power was re-routed to avoid serious disruptions. Conclusion: Initially classified Terrorist attack & no one ever arrested. Later classified as “most likely the work of a disgruntled former employee” by FBI.
Nogales, Arizona Power Plant - diesel fuel set to a timer & exploded
Physical attacks on the U.S. power grid rose last year (2022) by 71%, compared to 2021 and surpassed 2020 figures by 20%. The industry's preeminent clearinghouse predicts the number of serious incidents will continue to rise this year. - CBS News
How Many Substations Need to be Destroyed to Take Down the Entire U.S. Power Grid?
Less than 20
“Federal Analysis Says Sabotage of Nine Key Substations is Sufficient for Broad Outage” - The U.S. could suffer a coast-to-coast blackout if saboteurs knocked out just 9 of the country’s electric-transmission substations.
Inadequacy of the United States Power Grid
A May 12, 1981 GAO report stated the federal government would not be prepared to handle the energy disruptions caused by an attack on the nation’s power grid system due to the Department of Energy’s failure to prepare required electric emergency preparedness plans. Over 40 years later, we are still facing the same issue. Nothing has been done.
Cyber Attacks - on any given day, there are thousands of attempts to penetrate the systems that control energy networks. There are no requirements for any organization to detect, mitigate, or remove malware from the electric grid.
2015 - “Blackouts in Ukraine were just a trial run. Russian hackers are learning to sabotage infrastructure - and the US could be next.”
March 15, 2018 - “Cyberattacks Put Russian Fingers on the Switch at Power Plants, U.S. Says.” Russian state hackers had the foothold they would have needed to manipulate or shut down power plants.
SolarWinds - Hack timeline
Here is a timeline of the SolarWinds hack:
September 2019. Threat actors gain unauthorized access to SolarWinds network
October 2019. Threat actors test initial code injection into Orion
Feb. 20, 2020. Malicious code known as Sunburst injected into Orion
March 26, 2020. SolarWinds unknowingly starts sending out Orion software updates with hacked code
According to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security advisory, the affected versions of SolarWinds Orion are versions are 2019.4 through 2020.2.1 HF1.
More than 18,000 SolarWinds customers installed the malicious updates, with the malware spreading undetected. Through this code, hackers accessed SolarWinds's customer information technology systems, which they could then use to install even more malware to spy on other companies and organizations. - WhatIs
Colonial Pipeline - a several day shutdown
The Colonial Pipeline hack is the largest publicly disclosed cyber attack against critical infrastructure in the U.S. The attack involved multiple stages against Colonial Pipeline IT systems. The attack began when a hacker group identified as DarkSide accessed the Colonial Pipeline network. The attackers stole 100 gigabytes of data within a two-hour window. Following the data theft, the attackers infected the Colonial Pipeline IT network with ransomware that affected many computer systems, including billing and accounting.
Colonial Pipeline shut down the pipeline to prevent the ransomware from spreading. Colonial Pipeline paid DarkSide hackers to get the decryption key, enabling the company's IT staff to regain control of its systems. - WhatIs
2020 - Hackers infiltrated at least nine U.S. federal agencies
June 2021 - JBS USA, one of the world’s biggest meat processors, shut down a processing plant in Plainwell, Michigan & other plants across the U.S. because of an “organized cybersecurity attack” on its North American & Australian IT servers.
“The head of U.S. Intelligence (2017-2019), Dan Coats stated publicly the Russians were in the control plane of our power grid & the Chinese have access controls of our natural gas pipeline system.” - Richard Clarke, White House National Security Council
Once access to systems is acquired, hackers can conduct attacks immediately or remain dormant & conduct surveillance until the time is right. The United States is heavily reliant on power & digital controls are deeply embedded into infrastructure, the power grid itself, healthcare, pipelines, & so much more.
Electromagnetic Pulse - a nuclear explosion above the atmosphere above the United States could unleash a burst of invisible electrical energy that within a fraction of a second could over wash the country and overload all electronic devices including the power grid. It will shut down any computer that is operating within the range of an EMP. A vary low yield nuclear detonation from a simple missile or even a weather balloon launched 20 miles above the Earth can be devastating to the transformers & the rest of the electrical infrastructure.
Texas State Senator Bob Hall - “We actually know that the Russians, the Chinese, Iranians, have in their war plans the first strike plan to take out our electrical power system with an EMP attack. It’s not speculation. We know that. We learned that about the Russians when the U.S.S.R. collapsed, there were a number of defectors that left Russia & came to the United States. They showed up here with boxes, suitcases full of data showing what the Russians planned to do with an EMP attack. What the Russians had given information to the Chinese . We’ve listened to Kim Jong Un in North Korea threaten an EMP attack.”
Iranians & the North Koreans are jointly working together for arming their missiles with a nuclear war head. The Iranians have already launched a ballistic missile in the Caspian Sea.
A Large Missile or Balloon is not Required to Have a Devastating Effect - there are smaller non-nuclear EMP weapons such as the EMP suitcase operated by a single individual with little or no training which could take out individual critical substations.
North Korean Satellites - there have been two satellites launched by North Korea in 2013 & 2016 which are on a polar orbit from south to north which cross the United States several times a day. They’ve been monitored by the U.S. since they’ve been launched & although they are not transmitting data they are either “total duds or they are weapons waiting for a signal to drop a nuclear weapon.” - Texas Senator Bob Hall
Geomagnetic Disturbance (GMD)/ Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) -
The Carrington Event 1859 - the most intense geomagnetic storm/CME on record which fried the telegram system coast-to-coast in the United States & in Europe.
Lloyds of London published a 2013 paper titled ‘Solar Storm Risk to the North American Electric Grid’ explained how a Carrington-style event is inevitable in our future. Any CME similar to the Carrington Event would cause an outage duration anywhere from 16 days to 1-2 YEARS. The restoration of electrical service is highly reliant on the availability of spare replacement transformers at the time of the event.
Coronal Mass Ejection Close-Call: On July 23, 2012, there was a massive disturbance on the surface of the sun which ejected a burst of energy toward the Earth at over 5 million miles per hour. It missed the planet by a margin of approximately nine days.
Geomagnetic Storm Assessments were conducted in Norway, Sweden, The United Kingdom, & parts of Japan. Most U.S. companies weren’t interested.
$1.2 Billion Reasons why the United States Hasn’t Invested in its Power Grid - this is the amount the electric utility industry has spent in the last decade lobbying congress along with political contributions to members of key committees which could enact legislation to protect the electric grid. The federal government does not have any direct authority to require the electric grid to protect itself. The electric utility industry has always been self-regulated. Although some efforts have been made to protect the grid from all hazards, nearly every objective expert believes they haven’t done enough. The electric industry doesn’t feel like protecting the grid from outside threats as they don’t believe it’s their responsibility. No other government agency wants to step up. The run-around looks like:
The DOD claims a CME is a natural threat which belongs to the DHS
The DHS says that an EMP could be caused by a nuclear weapon or terrorist attach which belongs to the DOD
The DOE which is responsible for overseeing the electric grid would say national security isn’t our problem at all
Two Agencies Oversee the Electrical Grid - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) & the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). FERC has delegated its power to NERC which consists of 12 trustees, 9 of which are from electric utilities thereby influencing policy decisions. There is no single agency in the United States Government taking responsibility for the power grid. Lobbying efforts by the utility industry have been able to strike down any legislative effort made over the past decade to improve the grid.
The Obama Administrations attempted to enact legislation to protect the power grid from geomagnetic disturbances via executive order in 2016 but ineffective regulator follow-through resulted in virtually no GMD protection.
On March 26, 2019, President Trump signed Executive Order 13865 - Coordinating National Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulses which wad made into law by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020. No progress has been made since the law has been enacted as there have been more calls for studies aka redundancy of what has already been studied.
Some Utility Companies are Taking Steps to Protect Electrical Infrastructure - Dominion Power, Duke Energy, CPS Energy, Centerpoint Energy, American Electrical Power, & Southern California Edison.
Solutions from Grid Down Power Up - see website for details on each topic
Prioritize Nuclear Plants & Spent Nuclear Fuel
Protect Critical Substations
Implement Existing EMP/GMD Protection Systems
Upgrade Federal & State Cybersecurity Standards
Upgrade & Deploy All-Hazards Protected Communication Systems at Fed & State Level
Leverage Military Standards
Establish Microgrids - independent power sources for each city. Municipalities can elect to own & run their own utilities such as Joint Base San Antonio. Rock Hill in South Carolina’s Lake Wiley Project combined the citizen’s grid concerns with scientists & Duke energy to address the EMP threat.
Implement EMP Task Force Recommendations (2018)
Implement EMP Commission Recommendations (2017)
A New Presidential Executive Order Must Be Issued
Federal Legislation Must Be Passed
Hold both the electric utility industry, state & federal governments accountable for protecting the power grid against threats via legislation & people on the ground taking action.
It has long been known how to protect the electrical grid against the aforementioned threats. CenterPoint worked with Siemens to develop SIPROTEC digital substation with electromagnetic pulse mitigation (EMP) technology. The SIPROTEC protection devices which are a compact digital scalable substation protection & control system which can survive EMP, IMEI, & other hazards for a fraction of the cost to create an entirely new substation. The upgrades can be done in phases depending on the desired level of protection. The upgrade process should be started from the most critical component, the transformers, & work down to the substations, transmission, generation, & fuel supply chain.
Contact your state legislators, utility companies, & regulators & urge them to take immediate action steps toward protecting the nation’s power grid from threats. The Grid Down Power Up website provides the tools to easily contact these people/organizations in your home state.
You can watch the call-to-action documentary here
My Personal EMP Protection Solutions
From my article on Chinese Balloons:
EMP Shields -
“People needed EMP and solar EMP protection for their homes, cars, boats, planes and other electronic devices. He spent a few days pondering a way to make a reusable EMP shield for homes – as well as for businesses. It had to shield every electrical device inside them. He solved the problem with a design that can take multiple HEMP strikes without failing – while being cost efficient.”
Visit Me & enter coupon code: WarriorInsights for a generous discount on EMP protection.
Faraday Bags/Cages - a simple empty paint can can double as an EMP shield for your phone or small electronic devices. I purchased this pack for my laptop & some of my small electronic devices.
Additional Personal Protection (put electronics in Faraday bag) -
Until next time, stay informed, stay vigilant, Ever Forward!
