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| Threat To The Grid? Details Emerge Of Sniper Attack On Power Station | |
| 2014-02-07 | |
| [FoxNews] Newly reported details about a 52-minute sniper attack on a central Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, electrical substation last year are raising concerns from Capitol Hill and beyond, amid questions over whether it was the work of terrorists. The April 16, 2013, attack had not been widely publicized until The Wall Street Journal reported new details in a story on Wednesday. The attack reportedly started when at least one person entered an underground vault to cut telephone cables, and attackers fired more than 100 shots into Pacific Gas & Electric's Metcalf transmission substation, knocking out 17 transformers. Electric officials were able to avert a blackout, but it took 27 days to repair the damage. The FBI doesn't think the incident was a terror attack, an agency front man told the Journal. However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the time, disagrees. Wellinghoff went public with the story after briefing federal agencies, Congress and the White House, citing national security concerns and fear that electric-grid sites don't have adequate protection. In addition, retired PG&E executive Mark Johnson said at an industry gathering a few months ago that he feared the attack was a dress rehearsal for a larger event, according to the Journal.
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| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #8 Sure, and that was a tree branch that knocked the US northeast off the grid some years ago. I believe that, since the tree in question is only a few miles from here. It's a little known fact that my town surrounding that tree never lost power on that day in August 2003. It's a public power town which had earlier secured its own feed independent of the north east grid, yet is surrounded by territory dependent on that grid. The major line that was the start of the disruption just passes through my town in a utility right of way, but does not supply it with power. The night of the big power failure, my town was alight in a sea of near total darkness, a very weird sight to see. That night after sundown I hiked along the margin between the darkness & the light to check it out. The other weird but expected sight was a long string of headlights coming from every direction out of the dark areas around us -- people driving into town to buy beer, cold milk & ice. It was a hot night. We sold out of those items in a couple of hours. Note: that critical high voltage line is still there, and the power companies since 2003 have put much more effort into pruning trees along those rights of way, here and elsewhere in the entire northeast (and probably country wide). There are several public parks which overlap the transmission line rights of way. IMNSHO it doesn't look very difficult for a man with a sniper rifle to cut some of those HV lines from a safe distance from points on park land and get away without being detected. An electrician I know casually told me he was doing work in downtown Akron, not far from here, and found an unlocked and unlabeled switch box in a public garage adjacent to an AT&T office (this was years ago). It had fiberoptic lines and electric power, source not labeled either. He talked his way into the AT&T office & eventually contacted management who confirmed this box was part of the control system for the NE power grid. Why this vulnerable point was neither labeled or protected, although accessible to the general public, was never explained. This conversation was over a couple of beers, and I am not an electrician, but have no reason to doubt the story's accuracy. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2014-02-07 22:36 |
| #7 Without being too specific, Gorb, a large portion of 'switchyard' and generation station materials are manufactured someplace other than the US (or the western hemisphere). You're always waiting for a freighter from the other side of the world. (and US CUSTOMS!) |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2014-02-07 15:46 |
| #6 I'll bet these transformers are manufactured in a large part in China, too. |
| Posted by: gorb 2014-02-07 14:21 |
| #5 There is too much of a grid to provide sustain overt protection. You have to rely upon the locals being alert to unusual comings and goings. However, you try to go out and grab guns as part of extending the grip of the oligarchs, both the guns and non-cooperation of locals will make the urbanite political base cold and hungry rather quickly. Yep, I can see some Donks expressing alarm, but of course not curtailing their ever growing lust for more authoritarian power. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-02-07 13:06 |
| #4 The FBI doesn't think the incident was a terror attack, an agency front man told the Journal. Sure, and that was a tree branch that knocked the US northeast off the grid some years ago. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2014-02-07 13:00 |
| #3 3dc and I have discussed this issue quite a bit over the last 3 years. We have a very large grid of critical nodes from power generation, transmission and distribution. The nodes are large and critical. As shown from brownouts and blackouts in the northeast, to the latest incident in the article, The system is not flexible and robust. It is basically a centralized system with relatively few nodes, so it cannot take a hit without major disruption. Centralized systems are inherently unstable. Better to decentralize more for stability and resilience. Nature does this. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2014-02-07 12:34 |
| #2 Nice substation you have there. Shame if something nasty happened to it again. Has anyone briefed you on......Obamagrid ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-02-07 10:36 |
| #1 Having built power stations and sub-stations, I've always considered this type of activity a real threat. Poison a water supply, although a horrid thought, remedies, supplies and supplemental filtration can be accomplished fairly rapidly. Take out specific items in a power station or substation, you can be weeks, if not months, in effecting repairs/replacements for the grid. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2014-02-07 10:29 |