U.S. Power Grid Regions, Source: NPR.ORG
The U.S. power grid is divided into three parts: 1) Most of Texas, 2) Eastern Interconnect which is everything east, and including, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, the Dakotas and northern Texas; 3) West Interconnect which is everything west of, and including, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.
Power is transferred from low demand regions to high demand regions via a network of high-voltage transmission lines which are capable of carrying large amounts of electricity almost anywhere in the U.S. that the power is needed. It is because of the power grid’s interconnectivity, that the potential exists that entire power grid region could experience cascading power failure.
On August 14-15, 2003 in the Northeast United States and Canada experienced cascading power outages as a result of a high voltage power line brushing against overgrown tree branches, causing one line to fail. Within less than 90 minutes other lines began to fail creating a power outage that resulted in 50 million people inconvenienced for up to 2 days in what is considered the largest blackout in North American history. It is estimated that more than $6 billion in damages and 11 deaths occurred as of this event.
The Wall Street Journal (March 12, 2014) reported that a report of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found that a coordinated sabotage attack of as few as nine key transformers in the three electrical regions, out of 55,000 around the country, could cause a collapse of the U.S. power grid and a coast-to-coast blackout. Thirty transformers are considered “critical” to the grid due to the large amounts of volume of electricity they carry. Federal Regulators believe that knocking out nine of the 30 critical transformers would cause weeks, if not months of blackout. Regulators are working with electric industry to implement tighter security measures for the electrical infrastructure.
It is no secret that the U.S. power grid is vulnerable to physical attacks. The power grid is also highly susceptible to cyberattack (related article) and solar weather events such as flares and electromagnetic pulses.
Sources: npr.org, The Wall Street Journal.
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