Jump to content

Menu

Does anyone know anything about supposed power outage Nov. 13-14 for test of North American grid?


Pen
 Share

Recommended Posts

I read the NY Times article and it is a computer drill.

 

"This is why thousands of utility workers, business executives, National Guard officers, F.B.I. antiterrorism experts and officials from government agencies in the United States, Canada and Mexico are preparing for an emergency drill in November that will simulate physical attacks and cyberattacks that could take down large sections of the power grid.

They will practice for a crisis unlike anything the real grid has ever seen, and more than 150 companies and organizations have signed up to participate.

 

This is different from a hurricane that hits X, Y and Z counties in the Southeast and they have a loss of power for three or four days,†said the official in charge of the drill, Brian M. Harrell of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, known as NERC. “We really want to go beyond that.â€

One goal of the drill, called GridEx II, is to explore how governments would react as the loss of the grid crippled the supply chain for everyday necessities.

“If we fail at electricity, we’re going to fail miserably,†Curt Hébert, a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said at a recent conference held by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Mr. Harrell said that previous exercises were based on the expectation that electricity “would be up and running relatively quick†after an attack.

Now, he said, the goal is to “educate the federal government on what their expectations should or shouldn’t be.†The industry held a smaller exercise two years ago in which 75 utilities, companies and agencies participated, but this one will be vastly expanded and will be carried out in a more anxious mood.

Most of the participants will join the exercise from their workplaces, with NERC, in Washington, announcing successive failures. One example, organizers say, is a substation break-in that officials initially think is an attempt to steal copper. But instead, the intruder uses a USB drive to upload a virus into a computer network.

 

The drill is part of a give-and-take in the past few years between the government and utilities that has exposed the difficulties of securing the electric system."

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly, I don't think it's necessary. Recent natural events in the last couple years (Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene, for example) have shown the ineffectiveness of the power companies and state govts. to respond. I don't know why they think people are out for only 3 or 4 days with a hurricane. That quote by the official makes it sound like they respond so well to such disasters. Hardly the case, especially when they knew the hurricane is going to hit. If you can't do the small things well (and hurricane damage is not small by any means), you aren't going to do too well with the big things.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly, I don't think it's necessary. Recent natural events in the last couple years (Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene, for example) have shown the ineffectiveness of the power companies and state govts. to respond. I don't know why they think people are out for only 3 or 4 days with a hurricane. That quote by the official makes it sound like they respond so well to such disasters. Hardly the case, especially when they knew the hurricane is going to hit. If you can't do the small things well (and hurricane damage is not small by any means), you aren't going to do too well with the big things.

 

Well the idea of these simulations is to try to test the system and find the weak spots, *before* a real-life emergency hits.  

 

The guy quoted in the article said "This is different from a hurricane that hits X, Y and Z counties in the Southeast and they have a loss of power for three or four days.  We really want to go beyond that.â€

I read this to mean that the tabletop exercise they're doing is to simulate something worse than the "normal" hurricane that hits a few counties with a 3-4 day outage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...