America needs to prepare for a potential coordinated attack on the electrical grid.
You’ve heard me tell you many times that the nation’s electrical grid is vulnerable. That’s no secret anymore. Even the government has come out and acknowledged the truth of that statement. The grid is obviously vulnerable to extreme weather, as we’ve seen countless times, and it’s also proven to be vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Now, a story about a physical attack against the grid has finally become public. The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets are reporting on an incident that occurred near San Jose, California, in April 2013.
Shortly after telephone cables were cut, multiple snipers fired shots on the nearby Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation’s Metcalf transmission substation. It took nearly a month for workers to make the repairs and bring the substation back to life. To this day, no one has been arrested in connection with the sabotage.
Was this an isolated incident conducted by vandals, or was it a dress rehearsal by terrorists? What really matters is that the incident proved the vulnerability of the grid against a terrorist attack. It showed that a coordinated attack on substations in major cities across the country could be very effective in plunging much of the country into the dark, possibly for an extended period of time. The fact is, other critical electrical grid sites remain just as unprotected as this one was.
Jon Wellinghoff, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said that the attack was “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred” in the U.S.
It seems inevitable that at some point or another, all of us will experience power outages if we’re connected to the grid. They may be merely short inconveniences, or they may be long-term incidents. We just don’t know. What have you done to prepare for such an event?
I even sent Trickier Dickie Nixon a letter by snail mail back in the 1970s asking him to put me on his Emenies List that he and his justice department wad keeping on Americans
Telsa Motors Inc. may soon have a solution to the emergency power supply.
http://www.trueactivist.com/tesla-announces-the-release-of-a-battery-that-can-power-your-home/
I’m a retired electronics engineer with some experance in power distribution and I explain below!
To george: NO!! You’ll NEED to have the electrical/electronic systems on the both on and/or connected to the generators protected with “faraday” cage surrounding them. Google Faraday shields/cages and you’ll find what’s required. fir FULL protection.
John A Dixon (sierrajohn2)
in 1972 CSX RR had a complete power failure on whole system signal employees were told. WE worked for 3 days straight finding no problem. WE were told to stop working and go home. Power came back on. Then 2 weeks later WE were told to stay in office when power failed again and this time all communications failed also. 2 hours later all was back on and nothing was ever told to us as to what was going on. But later found out it was a test to see if power and communications could be turned off from one place. And it could be ! ! !
— So do you think same could happen over a larger area for electric power and phone lines and cell phones and internet ??
I’m just glad to see no “Obama Bashing” in this blog. This whole blog is starting to look more and more like “astro-turfe” instead of being a truly “grass roots” comunity. Thank you and for those who bash our Comander in Chief all the time; take the time to study your Congress. Sometimes, y’all sound as racist and bigoted as those dumies who are obstructing Obama at every step. The fact is ALL of our infrastructure is falling apart and is very vulnerable. Our Congress keeps blocking every effort President Obama has been doing to fix this problem. Get onto them and educate yourselves and figure out where the real problem is. Blogs like these who are really into ‘Obama bashing’ really makes me wonder about “Power 4 Patriots”. Get it together and write your Representatives and Senators instead of whining on this blog. They really need to know and depend a lot on our input.
Jeff, there’s no question our govt is in deep crap and there are things the republicans need to improve on. The’ve only been in control for 2 months. Prior to that, Harry Reid blocked over 200 bills written by republicans and independents, so that’s on your party.
As for Obama and not and not “bashing” him, this is where you really showed how little you understand of what’s going on. First of all, if this were any president before him, a white male, you would call it is, voicing an opinion on bad presidential decisions. But since this is a black progressive (regressive), no one is allowed to say anything negative or it’s racist, hateful, or uneducated conservatives.
There’s a reason there is so much anger from the American people. Obama is the biggest liar I’ve ever seen in my life, and that includes every politician since I started following politics in the 60’s. Now before you get your panties in a twist, just remember how you used to say the same things about Bush. What? Bush is white, so it’s acceptable? That would make you the racist. Even though proof of the WMDs was found last year and even though Bush had congressional approval, liberals love to deny both and still call Bush a liar. Well Bush is gone, it’s all history now. obama is still here. Simply google two words, obama lies and start reading. You might need 2 days to see them all. I’m not talking about exaggerations like most politicians do. I’m talking about looking you in the eye and knowingly outright lying to your face.
Then there’s the issue of bypassing congress. obama has trampled all over the constitution as he plays king. He takes credit for Bush’s work like bailing out the auto industry and banks (both of which conservatives were pretty upset about). Now liberals were against it when Bush brought it up, cheered it when obama brought it up …. just like good little uneducated sheeple.
You call obama a commander in chief, he is that by law. But no CIC starts thinning down our military starting with Generals and working their way down to Captains! Any IDIOT can tell you that. So if an IDIOT knows not to do that, does that obama is intentionally weakening our security force? Or maybe you can explain why in obama’s first 3 years there were more American casualties in the Middle East than all of Bush’s years combined? I’ll give you a hint, he changed the rules on how we could fight.
On the local front, just ONE example of many, a 40 minute TV appearance to talk about a racist cop in Ferguson, who ended up not being racist, nor guilty. When 2 cops are shot because he stuck his racist nose where it didn’t belong, he sends a tweet for prayers. Yeah there’s a real sign of a leader. What a jackass! He had the PERFECT opportunity to bridge the small remaining gap in race. Instead, he destroyed 40 years of work in just a short few.
You defending obama just sickens me. Your smart enough to know how to use a computer, yet dumb enough that you don’t verify what the hell is going on. You blindly follow your party and refuse to understand facts and reality. I don’t care what party says what, I VERIFY everything! I’m angry at Republicans for supporting obama’s agenda when they were clearly hired not to by the people. Conservatives are told stop whining, obama won by votes from the people. For obama’s reelection, there are so many accounts of voter fraud it’s pathetic, easily verified with a google search. Yet the Conservatives won hands down, biggest landslide since WWII. That’s the people waking up and demanding obama’s agendas be stopped, NOW!
Learn to verify Jeff. It’s the only way not to make a fool of yourself when you try to talk politics.
Jeff, I found out that letters, phone calls and emails do little if anything but exhaust the writer/caller. I’ve been told, directly, by staffers in our congress men’s’ offices that sometimes callers’ or writers’ comments are tallied and sometimes they aren’t. I’ve called my Rep’s office about issues and been told the congressman wouldn’t be voting on that issue because it wasn’t important. Little matters to politicians unless it will get the politician a generous campaign donation. That’s my experience.
Frank Bates blog about the Metcalf substation is half correct. That is to say that a group of men did attack the substation back in April 2013. What he failed to mention is that this same substation was attacked a second time August 27, 2014.
The Metcalf substation was targeted early in the morning, August 27, 2014, by intruders who cut through the fencing at the site and stole construction equipment being used for security upgrades.
Here is the kicker, the alarms sounded in the utility’s central security-dispatch center shortly after 2 a.m., although the break-in wasn’t discovered until the morning shift arrived about four or five hours later. Pacific Gas and Electric, PG&E, company reported the break in incident to police around 7:30 a.m. and to the public eight hours later. PG&E said it is seeking the public’s help in identifying the thieves.
The police has no clues as to who broke into the facility and neither does PG&E. Yet, from prior experience from the attack on April 2013; whereby, gunmen shot out 17 large transformers. PG&E has not learn their lesson of upgrading their security.
There was no blackout during the April 2013 attack because of adjustments made by the grid operator. The Metcalf substation was out of service for nearly a month.
Transformers, which control voltages on power lines, are custom built for their locations and it often takes a year or more to build a new unit. Getting a new transformer in place also is a logistical challenge; transformers can weigh 500,000 pounds and few railcars exist that can move them.
According to the Government, power-transmission security is a major concern since substations are linchpins in the U.S. electric grid. The Wall Street Journal reported details of a federal study that found that disabling as few as nine critical power substations could cause cascading blackouts across the country. Repairing multiple electrical substations would be slow and a difficult task to perform. Yet, PG&E failed to upgrade their security system much less have at lease on man on duty to answer the alarms that were going off.
It is one thing to know that you have a problem; it is another not to do anything about it. Somebody needs a swift kick to the ass to give them, the Government and PG&E, the motivational incentive that is needed.
The Government hasn’t overseen any corrections to any possible security breaches throughout the country other than firing off memos to other power companies across the country. So don’t be surprise when you find yourself sitting in the dark because nothing was done to address this problem. This is your Government at work.
I have 2 Generators that I need to protect in case of E.M.P.attack. I read that as long as they were not connected there would be no damage,but what about the electronic ignition,wouldn’t that be fried? Is there a metal type blanket that could be used to cover these generators?
I offer an EMP bag – a faraday cage with a handle – with my solar powered generator (www.PatriotPowerGenerator.com) because an EMP would knock it out. I’ll be offering those bags for sale on their own in a few weeks…maybe that would be a good solution for you?
That’s a very good idea. Thanks Frank.
I have huge rolls of Mylar. This is the metal used for mirrors and the metal looking ballons. Do you think I can use this to wrap the generator?
no. Mylar is typically non-conductive. It won’t help at all.
Didn’t you advertise a 3000watt solar generator with a 25 foot cord?
http://www.patriotpowergenerator.com
As an electrical engineer I believe all equipment can be protected against solar flares and other attacks by installing surge protection and by securing the generators and substations. The power companies should be doing this now.