Substation attacks prompt national review of U.S. electric grid
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Securing the electric grid has been a trending topic following two shootings at substations in North Carolina on Dec. 3. The attacks damaged equipment of provider Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) and caused more than 45,000 customers to lose power. A third attack last week saw shooters target another Duke substation in South Carolina, while at least four substations in Oregon and Washington state have been targeted since November.
Snapshot: Suspects have yet to be identified, but the site of the blackout-causing attack was enormous, around 75% of the size of a football field. This likely means whoever was responsible "knew right where to shoot to create a slow leak into the transformers, which drained the oil so that they had time to get out and get away before anyone would notice," said Moore County Chairman Nick Picerno. Bigger transformers, which could be the size of a railroad car, are not easily replaceable, as the U.S. doesn't produce too many of them and there are long backlogs for the devices.
The Feds are now getting involved, ordering a review of security standards for the nation's electricity transmission network to see if additional improvements are necessary. Power transformers are highly visible and "are really vulnerable - sometimes to a drunk with a gun and an attitude," noted Mark Christie, Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. "We have a lot of incidents of that. That's not unusual. The substations are a different ballgame."
By the numbers: The U.S. electrical grid includes more than 50,000 substations - which transform high voltage from big power lines into lower voltages for homes and businesses - across more than 700,000 miles of transmission lines.
Related: Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT), Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED), Constellation Energy (NASDAQ:CEG), Dominion Energy (NYSE:D), DTE Energy (NYSE:DTE), Entergy (NYSE:ETR), Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES), NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE), Southern Company (NYSE:SO).