The White House announced efforts last week to upgrade aging energy infrastructure to reduce power outages and improve the grid as demand soars, but experts say threats from malicious actors continue to pose security risks.
The federal government and 21-state initiative was formed to repair and improve outdated infrastructure to reduce power outages caused by several recent severe weather events.
The states participating in this initiative are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.
The announcement came the same day that severe storms with destructive winds hit Texas, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.
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Generator (Ramiro Vargas/Fox News Digital)
Under the terms of the partnership, the federal government would provide technical assistance while helping states apply for federal funds and loans to help utilities build more transmission lines, according to a White House fact sheet.
Morgan Wright, a cybersecurity expert and chief security adviser at SentinelOne, said cybersecurity measures need to be one of the pillars of any modernization effort.
“If you think back to when the war between Ukraine and Russia started, one of the first things Russia targeted was electricity,” Wright told Fox News Digital, adding that Moscow targeted power plants and backup facilities in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“My concern is that if we don’t put in the necessary foundations when we build this, we’re going to be left with a big hole.
“It’s like building a house and then saying, ‘Oh, I wish I’d built a basement.'”
The Biden administration in April announced a public-private partnership to upgrade 100,000 miles of existing power transmission lines, more of which are needed to increase the amount of energy coming from green sources like wind and hydropower.
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Large transmission lines for the Ivanpah solar power system in California’s Mojave Desert near Primm, Nevada. (George Rose/Getty Images)
“If we don’t reach the 100,000-mile goal, it’s because not enough utilities decided to voluntarily embrace this opportunity,” said Rob Gramlich, founder of Grid Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-based consultancy that focuses on transmission and electricity markets for reliable, affordable and sustainable power systems.
Gramlich noted that cyber threats are an “ever-present” issue for any utility.
Between 2012 and 2014, Russian FSB officers used spear phishing and other tactics to infiltrate the business network of Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, a Kansas company that operates nuclear power plants. In May 2021, the oil-transporting Colonial Pipeline fell victim to a ransomware attack that took down its digital systems and affected customers along the East Coast.
“Not a drop of oil was lost,” Wright said, “but people reacted as if they had run out of gas and started stockpiling. Imagine what would happen if the power outage lasted longer.”
The FBI said the pipeline attack was carried out by an Eastern European cybercrime group known as “Dark Side.” Additionally, U.S. adversaries such as Iran and China, as well as other international criminal groups acting on behalf of U.S. enemies, also pose significant cyber and national security threats, Wright said.
Destructive digital attacks linked to Russian-backed groups in Europe have doubled in recent months, Juhan Lepassar, head of the European Union Cyber Security Agency (ENISA), said recently.
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Wind turbines generate power at the Block Island Wind Farm near Block Island, Rhode Island, on July 7, 2022. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, efforts in Congress to improve the transmission line have stalled: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said last month that “it’s going to be virtually impossible to get anything done” in 2024, citing opposition from House Republicans.
White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi said last week’s announcement would “facilitate rapid and cost-effective adaptation of the power grid.”
“We are investing tens of billions of dollars to strengthen our electric grid to prevent power outages from extreme weather, bolster American energy security, and drive innovation — the largest public investment in a generation,” he said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the three-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted 2-1 to adopt rules that will change how the electric grid is planned and financed.Despite the push for grid expansion, costly and lengthy permitting processes and politics will likely delay or block such projects from coming to fruition, said Mario Loyola, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate and the Environment.
“The main obstacles, such as dysfunction and allowing subsidies that distort the economics of energy production, were created by Congress and only Congress can fix them,” Loyola said.
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“I think this is just a window dressing and in many ways it could make the problem much worse.”
