Attacks on Power Grid Point Out Vulnerabilities
Attacks on Power Grid Point Out Vulnerabilities
An attack on the Tennessee Valley Authority's power grid, which serves almost the entire state of Tennessee, could take down critical services and leave residents in the dark.
The TVA has reported five instances of physical attacks, suspected attacks and vandalism on its Tennessee infrastructure since January 2011, a USA TODAY analysis of federal energy records finds.
While these attacks have not caused major problems, they raise concerns about vulnerabilities in the system that powers Tennessee.
TVA would not release the incident reports to The Tennessean because of security concerns and ongoing criminal investigations. But spokesman Jim Hopson said the Federally owned Corporation takes significant steps, both physically and procedurally, to protect its transmission infrastructure and the equipment that supports it.
"We, of course, take these things very seriously," Hopson said.
While he wouldn't go into specifics, Hopson said each of the five incidents that were reported between 2011 and December 2014 had the potential to affect the TVA's transmission infrastructure, either a transmission tower or a substation.
The authority investigates unauthorized access of its facilities, including cut locks and fences. It is also concerned with damaged and stolen equipment, including theft of copper conductors and sabotage, Hopson said.
TVA serves seven Southern states, including Tennessee, and is required to report electrical emergencies and disturbances on its system immediately to the U.S. Department of Energy, Hopson said.
Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, sees the potential for security breaches of the country's power grid as a sleeper problem. He said he thinks some utilities are uncomfortable talking about vulnerabilities.
"We've got wires hanging all over the place. We've got substations that are very accessible and can be damaged," Smith said. "If a determined group of individuals wanted to create havoc, I am absolutely certain that could be done ... with relative ease."
The issue is also of national concern because about once every four days the country's power grid is hit with a cyber or physical attack, according to the USA TODAY analysis. Smith pointed to two cases as examples of what could go wrong, including sabotage at a northern California substation on April 16, 2013, and a cascading outage that swept across the Northeast in 2003.
"It would be imprudent and unwise for us to not take this as a serious threat," Smith said.
The alliance, an energy policy advocate, acts as somewhat of a watchdog for the TVA. Smith has also served on a handful of boards that work with the authority. Smith does not know if TVA is any more or less vulnerable than other utilities, but his experience with the authority has shown him they take safeguarding their facilities seriously.
Hopson said he could not share specifics of TVA security, but said the authority uses several layers of protection. The authority also involves federal, state and local law enforcement to investigate each event and aggressively pursues prosecution.
Nashville Electric Service, which purchases all of its power from the TVA, has a "high level of confidence" in the authority's security measures, said NES spokeswoman Laurie Parker in an email to The Tennessean. NES and TVA are dependent on each other since the transmission grid is interconnected to improve reliability, she said.
"While there have been no threats made to our system, preventing any physical or cyber attack on the power grid is a top priority at NES. Our goal is to ensure we keep the power on for customers every day," Parker said.
Smith thinks more can be done to safeguard the country's power infrastructure, but he wants the TVA and other utilities to think beyond beefing up existing security measures.
He proposes using technology, specifically clean energy options, to create micro grids with individual power generation sources and storage. The individual sources would function independently of the closely connected central grid and would kick in if the macro grid goes down.
"As those types of things get greater penetration, you're going to have more resilience, more flexibility, more smartness — so to speak — in the grid, so that it becomes less vulnerable to these type of malicious vulnerabilities," Smith said.
Tennessee power grid attacks
From January 2011 to December 2014, The Tennessee Valley Authority sustained five attacks on its power transmission infrastructure and supporting equipment in Tennessee. The following reports were submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy:
• Aug. 13, 2012: vandalism in Knoxville
• April 21, 2013: suspected physical attack in East Tennessee
• June 19, 2014: physical attack, vandalism in Nashville
• June 24, 2014: physical attack, vandalism in Nashville
• Nov. 12, 2014: suspected physical attack, vandalism in an unknown location
Source: USA TODAY analysis of federal energy records
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