Almost 50,000 Duke Power customers in Moore County, NC were left in the dark on Sunday night in what has been called a domestic act of terrorism. A curfew is running from 9pm-5am as schools close and crime spikes. Most customers remain without heat, refrigeration and water.
Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said “We are looking at a pretty sophisticated repair with some fairly large equipment and so we do want citizens of the town to be prepared that this will be a multiday restoration for most customers, extending potentially as long as Thursday.”
Two power stations were targeted by direct gunfire.
The attackers knew “exactly what they were doing,” said Moore County, NC Sheriff Ronnie Fields. “It was a gate, and they went through the gate, got at the substation, and shot it as well… It wasn’t random.”
Grid News reports that there are more than 55,000 such power stations throughout the country and “There were 70 reports of emergency electric incidents and disturbances caused by suspected physical attacks, sabotage or vandalism from January to August 2022, Grid’s analysis of the most recently available data from the Department of Energy found. That figure represents a 75 percent increase from 40 such reports in all of 2015…”
But vulnerability to gunfire isn’t the most pressing concern. In October 2021, DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm in June told CNN that enemies of the United States have the capability to shut down the power grid, and “there are very malign actors trying, even as we speak.”
The Senate Republican Policy Committee issued a report concluding “The U.S. electric grid is vulnerable to cyberattacks that could result in catastrophic, widespread, lengthy blackouts and other loss of electrical services… Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China currently have the capability to launch cyberattacks that could disrupt critical infrastructure.”
The report noted, “In 2015, the insurance underwriter Lloyd’s developed a scenario for an attack on part of the Eastern Interconnection, which provides power to around half of the U.S. Under the scenario, an attack targeting power generators would cause a blackout in 15 states and the District of Columbia, leaving 93 million people without power.”
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