U.S. Risks National Blackout From Small-Scale Attack

[Lodestar]

Federal Analysis Says Sabotage of Nine Key Substations Is Sufficient for Broad Outage

By REBECCA SMITH CONNECT
March 12, 2014 7:03 p.m. ET
The U.S. could suffer a coast-to-coast blackout if saboteurs knocked out just nine of the country's 55,000 electric-transmission substations on a scorching summer day, according to a previously unreported federal analysis.

The study by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission concluded that coordinated attacks in each of the nation's three separate electric systems could cause the entire power network to collapse, people familiar...

(Wall Street Journal subscription required)


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The nation's entire power grid could be blacked out for months if as few as nine of the nation's 55,000 electric substations were put out of commission by saboteurs, The Wall Street Journal writes, citing a "previously unreported" study by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The Journal's report follows accounts of what happened last April at a power station near San Jose, Calif.

As we reported here and here, snipers apparently fired at the station's transformers. Seventeen of the transformers were knocked out by the shots. Officials avoided a local blackout by rerouting power around the site. No one has been arrested in connection with the incident.

That attack led former FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff to tell NPR and other news outlets that there's a dangerous lack of security around key parts of the nation's power grid. He called for "mitigation measures," including the placement of concrete barriers in front of transformers so that they can't be shot at from outside power stations.

Now, there's word from the Journal that the FERC study concludes "that coordinated attacks in each of the nation's three separate electric systems could cause the entire power network to collapse, people familiar with the research said." Such attacks would be especially damaging if they came on a day when the power grid is already under stress — such as a hot summer day when demand for air conditioning is especially high.

more- http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/03/13/289779344/report-small-scale-attacks-could-cause-national-blackout

[aristocles]

1. This may be the greatest and most serious external threat to the very existence of the US

A successful attack on the grid would result in an electrical blackout that would last for months. A very high level of civil unrest would ensue. Think Mad Max.

A successful EMP attack would permanently disable not only the grid, but ALL electrical devices. The US would become a pre-technological pre-19th century society. Recovery back to today's level would take decades. Some estimate over 80% of the population would perish in two to three years.

[jtuck004]

8. Lose cable tv? Tens of millions would go quite mad... n/t

[WhiteTara]

2. This is another reason distributed power is the way of the future.

We are battling Southern Power and Electric over a 345Kv power line they want to run through the heart of the Ozark Mountains and it would devastate the environment for more concentrated power.

[Earth_First]

3. Year after year...

It's the same study, the same finding and the same warnings.

At this point, if something were to happen, it's pure negligence on the part of the suppliers and government t for their lack of significant upgrades and government on their inability to legislate appropriate safety measures to require these necessary upgrades.

People die when this happens. There's no hyperbole here.

In the event that something of this magnitude were to occur, many will die.

Negligence.

[bemildred]

4. Yes, and that is why our centralized power system is a bad idea.

Centralized systems have bottlenecks and when those fail it has large consequences. Robust systems are distributed, like the Internet, and avoid centralized functionality. Also, such systems scale up much more effectively, with less loss of performance, again like the Internet. That is kind of why the Internet is the way it is, so it could scale up really well.

[aristocles]

6. If there is an EMP event...

...all distributed systems will be fried and useless. All electrical devices will be destroyed. All it takes is a 1 kiloton device detonated about 100 miles above Kansas City. An Iranian trawler, sitting tens of miles off the Eastern coast can deliver the nuke in a matter of minutes.

[bemildred]

7. And that is true whatever your architecture, so you might at least make it difficult for terrorists.

NT

[malthaussen]

5. Funny, I was just watching an NCIS episode on this very theme...

... made ten years ago.

-- Mal