When gunfire at two power substations cut power to thousands of homes in central North Carolina for several days in early December, Republican state Rep. Ben Moss watched as a vibrant district full of family farms, small businesses and a sprawling golf course became a “ghost town.”
After last week’s latest attack at a substation in Randolph County, northeast of Charlotte, Moss urged lawmakers to prioritize new legislation that will secure the state’s critical infrastructure when the legislative session begins in earnest this week. He became the first state legislator to propose power grid protection this year amid attacks on US substations, particularly in the Carolinas and the Pacific Northwest.
Recent attacks in Moore County, North Carolina, and others in Washington, Oregon, South Carolina and Nevada, have underscored the vulnerability of the country’s far-flung power grid, which security experts have warned could be a target for domestic extremists.
Lawmakers in at least two affected states — North Carolina and South Carolina — have begun proposing remedies.
“I don’t want to see anybody else go through what Moore (County) went through,” said Moss, a 2024 candidate for state labor commissioner whose district saw a peak of more than 45,000 customers losing power. “If the electricity goes out, you don’t have heat, you don’t have food, you don’t get fuel or medicine, people are not safe.”
Moss drafted legislation, obtained in early form by The Associated Press, that would require utilities to provide 24-hour security at substations, which convert high-voltage electricity to lower voltage that powers communities. Security measures will vary between sites, some are gated with nearby cameras, while others appear to be more extensive.
He called the bill a “conversation opener” between lawmakers, utilities and security experts to help the General Assembly identify cost-effective defenses that won’t drive up consumer prices.
The call for increased surveillance comes as questions linger about the Moore County shootings. The FBI is still seeking information and no arrests have been made.
Federal regulators in December ordered a review of physical security standards in the state’s electric transmission grid after the attack in North Carolina. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), which oversees many states’ power systems, has until early April to submit a report and recommend improvements.
Manny Cancel, NERC senior vice president and CEO of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, said the situation calls for more communication and collaboration between different levels of government, industry leaders and law enforcement.
“The frequency has increased, the targeting has increased,” Batal said. “What we’re seeing is a pattern of clusters … or assets that are close to each other that are being targeted repeatedly.”
Utilities in South Carolina – where gunshots were fired near the Duke Energy facility but did not cause damage the day after the North Carolina shooting – asked lawmakers to increase penalties for intentionally destroying electrical infrastructure or other utility property.
A proposal of the state Senate will set a sliding scale based on how much damage has been done – if the cost is more than $ 25,000 to repair the equipment and cover the loss, the perpetrator can face up to 20 years in prison, double the current maximum of 10 years.
A maximum sentence of 25 years will apply if someone dies or their health is threatened by the disturbance.
Dominion Energy South Carolina President Keller Kissam said the state saw at least 12 incidents of people intentionally damaging equipment last year.
“You want to demoralize people, you put them in the dark,” he said.
Some state senators worry that the law could be used against hunters who accidentally damage utility equipment. Kissam agreed, but said sometimes the damage isn’t an accident, because hunters use the equipment to adjust their rifle sights or as target practice. A subcommittee plans to review the bill again in a few weeks.
Another South Carolina bill seeks stiffer penalties for damage caused specifically by guns or explosives.
Brian Harrell, former assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the US Department of Homeland Security, said that although harsher penalties for equipment sabotage could be a deterrent, state legislatures can best support utilities by freeing up funds for additional security measures.
“Specifically, it warrants money for perimeter security, cameras and alarms,” said Harrell, who now oversees security for an energy company serving multiple states.
Construction of all the new security features will cost about $2.5 million per site, he said. But many substations already have fences, which reduce costs significantly. About $800,000 can go with a single substation with pan-tilt-zoom cameras, intrusion detection and access control systems.
The Pacific Northwest has become a hotspot for these physical attacks, with Washington and Oregon utilities reporting at least 15 incidents in 2022, including 10 in the last two months of the year.
Attackers attacked four Washington substations on Christmas Day, forcing their way in, setting fire to equipment and cutting power to thousands of customers.
Michael Furze, director of the Washington State Office of Energy, said that while there is no legislation specific to substation security, a broader bipartisan discussion is underway on grid resiliency.
Washington has been revamping its electrical infrastructure under the Clean Energy Transformation Act, which commits the country to a source of electricity free from greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. Physical updates and cybersecurity at work as the electrical grid undergoes significant changes to meet new standards, Furze said.
“‘Security by design’ is a core component of the system,” he said.
In neighboring Oregon, the state’s Public Utilities Commission is working with regulated utilities to increase vigilance and explore possible security updates, after a shooting attack damaged two substations in southeast Portland in late November. Spokeswoman Kandi Young said the commission is monitoring proposed legislation and is not aware of any related bills this session.
And in Nevada, where someone set fire to a solar power unit this month, a search of 138 bill draft requests with text that has been submitted turned up none addressing the safety of electrical infrastructure. But with more than two weeks until the biennial session begins, most legislative proposals have yet to be formally introduced.
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Hannah Schoenbaum is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative corps. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on hidden issues.
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Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Gabe Stern in Reno, Nevada, contributed reporting.