Federal regulators order study of power-grid security after Moore County outage
READ MORE
Moore County Power Outages
Thousands of people in Moore County, NC lost power for days in December 2022 after electrical substations were attacked. Here is the latest coverage from The News & Observer.
Expand All
Referencing this month’s shooting of two substations in Moore County, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ordered an examination Thursday of how the country’s electrical grid could be strengthened.
The order gives the Atlanta-based nonprofit North American Electric Reliability Corp. 120 days to return a report on potential upgrades to FERC’s existing physical security standards, including whether a baseline level of protection should be required at the more than 50,000 substations across the United States.
Established in 1977, FERC enforces physical and cyber security rules for power plants and transmission lines but does not regulate distribution substations like the one attacked in Moore County. Its commissioners approved the study at their December monthly meeting.
“The news in recent weeks doesn’t represent a new threat but it certainly highlights the need to reassess whether or not our current reliability standards are sufficient,” said commissioner Allison Clements during Thursday’s meeting in Washington, D.C.
FERC Chairman Richard Glick said ordering the study was a productive step as they await results from the ongoing FBI and local investigations into the Moore attacks.
“It reminds us we need to take physical security into account just as we do cyber security,” he said.
How to cover the cost?
Substations are integral to the broader North American power grid. At these facilities, providers turn high-voltage energy from towering transmission lines into lower-voltage power that’s then delivered to neighborhoods. But a string of attacks have called into question whether substations are sufficiently secure. Many stand behind chain-link fences and barbwire but without solid barriers impeding potential shooters.
In November, a substation in Jones County, North Carolina, was briefly disabled, while in the Pacific Northwest, the FBI received six confirmed reports of substation attacks. Then on Dec. 3, firearms were used to shoot a pair of substations in Moore County, about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh, strategically cutting off power to tens of thousands residents for four days.
On Thursday, FERC commissioner Mark Christie called this type of attack “sophisticated” and noted any security upgrades (like high-definition cameras) would likely come at a steep financial cost. In his remarks, Christie highlighted this week’s North Carolina Utilities Commission meeting Duke Energy executives were questioned about the cost of rebounding from the Moore County attacks.
He said he didn’t want to see security costs “fall on rate payers.”
Christie noted that President Joe Biden’s recent infrastructure bill gives $15 billion to the federal Department of Energy and wondered if portions of that funding could be allocated to bolster substation security.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 8:53 AM with the headline "Federal regulators order study of power-grid security after Moore County outage."
.JPG)
