Initial Steps Being Taken To Protect Electric Grid From Electromagnetic Pulse Events
This is good news and better late than never.
Read the rest of the article at the link.Over the past two years there have been several positive developments to protect the electric grid from electromagnetic pulse (EMP) events – manmade or natural phenomenon that could incapacitate large sections of the power grid. Solar storms, nuclear detonations and on-the-ground attacks by terrorists or saboteurs would lead to a cascading effect of frying electric grid components, resulting in long-term power outages, chaos, and death.The positive developments have occurred in the public policy realm and in important work being done on pilot projects.
A March 26, 2019 Presidential Executive Order places higher priority on and outlines steps for better coordination among government agencies so that an EMP attack is less likely to occur and better able to be met. Pilot programs in San Antonio and South Carolina, along with ongoing government research, should be widely disseminated and emulated so that large swaths of the electric grid are protected from EMP within the next 10 years.
Clear Need for Protective Actions
For decades it has been clear that the United States should protect its electric grid from EMP events. The evidence has included power disruptions from nuclear testing decades ago and solar events that have caused power outages, such as in Quebec in 1989. Numerous independent Congressional EMP commissions have also thoroughly documented the need for protection.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has previously implemented EMP fortifications at some military bases. DoD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency tweeted on July 7 that it has “expertise for designing comms & elec systems that could withstand EMP – all the way back in 1962!”
Simply put, it is time to make DoD best practices and other proven technological solutions widely available to utilities so that they can protect critical infrastructure.
A 2017 report by a Congressionally-authorized EMP commission found, “Across the U.S. government, the DoD and its supporting laboratories and contractors have by far the most knowledge, data, and experience related to the production of and survival from nuclear-generated EMP. However, the DoD has largely failed to make this knowledge available to other government agencies and to the organizations that develop, build, and operate U.S. critical national infrastructure.”
Pilot Programs are Proceeding
The most notable pilot project is in San Antonio.