Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

Report goes in-depth on power grid cyber vulnerabilities and why they won't be fixed soon

Federal Times: A new report details the urgent need for broad, systematic initiatives to improve the resilience of the U.S. power grid, while also highlighting the perils and pitfalls of such efforts, which range from politics to the conflicting economic self-interests of diverse stakeholders.

The report, “Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation’s Electricity System,” was recently published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s (NASEM) Committee on Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation’s Electric Power Transmission and Distribution System.

Dozens of organizations have published similar reports, but at 282 pages, NASEM’s report is notable for its breadth and depth. The length illustrates the topic’s complexity, which stems partly from the nature of the grid and partly from the “political process” that always accompanies any attempt to overhaul the status quo. Nonetheless, the report “focuses on identifying, developing and implementing strategies to increase the power system’s resilience in the face of events that can cause large-area, long-duration outages...”

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