9.3 Energy Infrastructure

WHO? The United States.

WHAT? Electricity Infrastructure.

WHEN? Is essential to sustaining life; without it, society would grind to a halt.

WHERE? A coordinated attack causing cascading failures could cause a nationwide blackout.

WHY? Although not easy, shutting down the US Grid would certainly be catastrophic.

As we stated, 4 of the 16 designated infrastructure sectors are considered so important to everything else they are deemed “lifeline” infrastructures. The four lifeline sectors are water, energy, transportation, and communications. In this topic we will take a look at the electricity subsector of the energy sector. In its entirety, the energy sector encompasses electricity, petroleum, and natural gas. The electricity subsector concerns the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. Collectively, we call it the North American Electric Grid, or just “grid”. The grid has been described as the most complex machine built by man. It is comprised of thousands of components geographically dispersed across the continent that must work together as one. 6,413 power plants produce 1,075 gigawatts of electricity to power the US electrical grid. 203,930 miles of high-voltage Alternating Current and 6,222 miles of high-voltage Direct Current power lines transmit that electricity from the power plants to distribution substations. From 30,320 substations, the high-voltage electricity is stepped down to useable levels to support the needs of 143 million residential and commercial customers. About 48% of the nation’s electricity is produced from coal-powered generators. Nuclear power contributed 20% and natural gas another 22%. Hydroelectric dams contribute 6%, and oil burning plants about 1%. No more than 3% comes from renewable sources including solar, wind, and geothermal. As we said, the grid is a giant machine. First it must precisely synchronize electricity generation so that the Alternating Current has the same frequency and phase across the entire grid. It must also precisely balance the amount of electricity generated compared to the amount consumed. Too much and it will burn up the grid. Too little and customers will be left in the dark. To help make the grid more manageable, it is segmented into four large parts: 1) The Eastern Interconnection, 2) The Western Interconnection, 3) Texas, and 4) Quebec. Yes, we share electricity with Canada as they do with us. Segmenting the grid into smaller parts makes it easier to synchronize and balance the load. It also helps prevent electrical failures from propagating across the entire nation. Although the grid is designed to deliver reliable service, it is so complex that that its behavior is chaotic. Sometimes, small failures can cascade into large ones. Moreover, they are unpredictable. In August 2003, a tree taking down a line in Ohio blacked out the US northeast and parts of Canada. The 2003 Blackout cut electricity to 50 million people for nearly a week. Although the cause was accidental, the consequences were no less severe. The blackout resulted in economic losses upwards of $10 billion, causing a measurable 0.7% drop in Canada’s GDP. Not only did the 2003 Blackout have large economic consequences, according to a John Hopkins study, 90 people in New York City died as a direct result of the power outage. Of course, DHS is concerned about large-scale electrical failure that could affect the entire country. In 2006 they conducted Project Aurora, an experiment to see if a power plant generator could be remotely directed to self-destruct over the Internet. By commanding the generator to spin faster than it was designed, they caused it to break apart. Power plant generators are no longer manufactured in the US. The disturbing implication of the experiment is that replacement generators must be ordered from overseas, taking years to deliver. The broader concern is that a coordinated cyber-attack taking down key generators could blackout the entire US Grid. And because of the long replacement time, it could be down for months if not years. Consider, for example, the consequences of the 2003 European Heatwave. More than 35,000 Europeans died due to lack of air conditioning. A national blackout could result in similar consequences.