Inadequate protection of the national electric grid, a key concern of President Trump, threatens the “survival of the United States,” a key defense task force warned on Tuesday.
Stepping up its concerns that the energy industry isn’t taking the threat of attack seriously enough, the task force called on a new focus to protecting the electric grid.
In a memo, the Electromagnetic Defense Task Force ripped an industry report that said an attack on the grid, either from a high-altitude terrorist nuclear explosion or solar hit, would be “moderate” based on its testing and modeling.
The Task Force said that the Electric Power Research Institute used outdated information and ignored key evidence that suggest an attack would lead to a massive blackout, or worse.
Air Force Maj. David Stuckenberg, the spokesperson for the Electromagnetic Defense Task Force, told Secrets that EMP experts believe the industry report downplays the threat.
“The EPRI report, if used to inform national bulk power standards could potentially jeopardize the survival of the United States under the right set of conditions presented by mother nature or an adversary,” he said.
But an EPRI spokesman said the group is confident in its assessment in its three-year survey and final report.
“EPRI stands behind our EMP research results, and welcomes technical debates that are supported by science, facts and data,” said Randy Horton, EMP project manager at the Electric Power Research Institute. “Our conclusions were reached after three years of extensive laboratory testing and analysis of potential EMP impacts on the electric transmission system.”
In its report, the industry group said a high-altitude nuclear attack “could trigger a regional service interruption but would not trigger a nationwide grid failure. Recovery times are expected to be similar to those resulting from large-scale power interruptions caused by other events provided that mitigations specific to the initial pulse are deployed. Possible damage to large power transformers was found to be minimal.”
The issue has become a huge focus of the administration. Trump has issued one executive order calling for new protections from EMP attacks. Now the president is working on a second executive order to “put teeth” in the initial order, said officials.
The task force has been warning about the lack of protection from an EMP attack. Just last week it raised concerns that nuclear power plants are not ready for an EMP attack and could suffer a “meltdown.”
The task force memo said that EPRI’s assessment of an attack is too rosy. It called the EPRI report “optimistic in the extreme.”
EPRI suggested that an attack would not knock out much power.
But the task force noted that a 2003 blackout in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest, caused by downed trees, cut power to 50 million and that did not involve any substantial attack on the lines. It also said the industry did not adequately consider the potential for cascading blackouts and electric grid failure.
“If EPRI’s April 2019 recommendations are to be followed, the ultimate result would be a U.S. power grid with remaining vulnerabilities impacting large power transformers, generating equipment, and microgrids designed for emergency backup power,” said the task force memo, show below.
The Task Force did, however, give the industry group credit for testing its system. But Stuckenberg said that more needs to be done to meet Trump’s executive order to protect the grid.
“The EDTF has one purpose, to present objective facts, observations, and analysis on complex electromagnetic issues to ensure the defense of our nation and allies in line with the President’s Executive Order,” he said.
