Enhancing
the resilience of the American electricity system
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
With growing risks to the nation's electrical grid from natural
disasters and as a potential target for malicious attacks, the U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should work
closely with utility operators and other stakeholders to improve cyber and
physical security and resilience, says a new Congressionally mandated report by
the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The grid remains vulnerable to diverse threats that can
potentially cause extensive damage and result in large-area, prolonged outages
that could cost billions of dollars and cause loss of life, the report found.
The grid is a complex, cyber-physical system that transmits
electricity generated from power plants and distributes it to homes and
businesses. In this report, the committee focused on reducing the nation's
vulnerability to large blackouts that extend over several service areas or
states and last three days or longer.
Events that can lead to such outages include hurricanes,
earthquakes, solar storms, cyber and physical attacks, and major operational
errors. Although the possibility of such long-duration outages cannot be
totally eliminated, the report identifies many steps that can be taken to make
the power system more resilient.
"Outages of this scale leave millions of customers without
power, resulting in economic damages estimated in the billions of dollars,
posing serious threats to health and public safety, and also potentially
compromising national security," said M. Granger Morgan, professor of
engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and chair of the committee.
"Outages caused by natural disasters are more common than
one might think. While the U.S. has not been subject to a large physical
assault or cyberattack, both pose serious and growing risks."
No single entity is responsible for planning, operating, or
regulating the grid, and increasing its resilience will require coordinated actions
by state, federal, private, and public groups, the report states.
The committee
provides several overarching recommendations to adopt a more integrated
perspective across the numerous, diverse institutions responsible for the
resilience of electricity system.
The committee called for improvements in the process of
systematically envisioning and assessing plausible large-area, long-duration
grid disruptions that could have major economic, social, and other adverse
consequences.
This process should also focus on how such events could impact
the U.S. dependence on vital public infrastructures and services provided by
the grid.
To best prepare for the impact of disruptive events, the
electricity industry -- in coordination with regional and state agencies, the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the North American Electric
Reliability Corp. -- should expand its efforts to convene regional emergency
preparedness exercises.
These exercises should include simulations of accidental
failures, outages caused by natural disasters, cyber and physical attacks, and
other damage that results in large-scale loss of power, the report says.
The committee also called for increased investment through
public and private funds in physical resources to ensure that critical electric
infrastructure is robust and that society is able to cope when the grid fails.
For example, DOE, DHS, and other agencies should oversee the
development of more reliable inventories of backup power needs and
capabilities, like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' mobile generator fleet.
Investments should also go toward expanding efforts to improve
the ability to maintain and restore critical services like power for hospitals,
first responders, water supplies, and communications systems.
The report includes specific recommendations for federal, state,
and regulatory agencies detailing actions that different groups can undertake
to improve grid resilience.
For example, DOE should support a number of research,
development, demonstration, and convening activities to improve the resilience
of grid operations and recovery steps.
The owners and operators of electrical infrastructure should
work closely with DOE in systematically reviewing previous outages and
demonstrating technologies, operational arrangements, and exercises that
increase the resilience of the grid.
Although more customers are investing in their own equipment for
electric supply, like solar panels or even microgrids -- a network of
electricity users with a local source of supply and the capability to operate
as an island during outages -- the report says most U.S. customers will
continue to depend on obtaining their power from the large-scale,
interconnected electrical grid at least for the next two decades.
The study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private,
nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice
to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related
to science, technology, and medicine.
