The Electric Power Grid: A Weak Link in Our National Defense

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Back in early December I wrote about a shooting at two electric substations in rural Moore County, North Carolina.   The shootings, sprays of semi-automatic gunfire, occurred late in the night on December 3rd and resulted in both substations going off-line and a power outage for 45,000 customers that lasted up to four days for some of the users.

The attack on the electric substations in Moore County, North Carolina, was actually the second such attack in the same state in less than a month.  On November 11th, a substation was attacked in Jones County, NC, that left 12,000 customers without power.  The effects of that attack were short-lived, and power was restored in a couple of hours.

Now there has been a third attack in as many months at yet another electric substation in the state of North Carolina.  Last Tuesday night a power substation in Randolph County was attacked by gunfire.  The plant's owner, EnergyUnited, quickly got control of the situation and was able to keep the facility operational without a loss of power to any of its customers.

Three attacks in three counties in three months - all in one state. - with no arrests.   Local law enforcement as well as the FBI are involved in the investigations and search for the culprits.

During the same time period there have also been a string of attacks on electrical power grid installations in Washington and Oregon.  Four power substations in Washington state were attacked on Christmas Day, and between mid-November and December 8th there were at least six other attacks on substations in Washington and Oregon.  Two men, ages 32 and 40, from Puyallup, Washington, were arrested in connection with the four Christmas Day attacks.  The damages at those plants, which left thousands of people in the dark and cold over the holiday, are reportedly in the millions of dollars.

Electric substations are not aesthetically pleasing and consequently are seldom found in safe and affluent communities.  They are often outside of populated areas - in the boonies - where they are out-of-sight and out-of-mind, and where they also make easier targets for domestic terrorists.  Errol Southern, a professor of national and homeland security at the University of Southern California summarized the vulnerability of the nation's power grid in remarks to National Public Radio (NPR):

"The (electric) grid is extremely large.  It has about 6,400 power plants across the country, some 55,000 substations, and over 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines serviced by 3,000 companies. . . It's extremely challenging to monitor and protect.  And many of these places are very remote, and so officers have to get there.  And by the time they do, the attackers are already gone." 

Clearly those whose goal is to foment revolution and do our nation harm have found its soft underbelly.  Until our country's power grid is made considerably stronger, we can expect the treachery and blackouts to continue.  

At some point we must confront this very weak link in our national defense.