http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/15/01/what-every-utility-should-know-about-new-physical-security-standard
By William E. Reiter
intelligentutility.com
Jan 29, 2015
On April 16, 2013, an incident in San Jose, California, led to development
of a new physical security standard for owners and operators of
transmission stations and substations.
In the 2013 incident, a sniper attack on a Pacific Gas & Electric
transmission substation knocked out 17 large transformers that powered
Silicon Valley. The sniper attack served as a dramatic wake-up call for
the industry and raised fears regarding the vulnerability of the nation’s
power grid to terrorist attack.
The more than 160,000 transmission line miles that comprise the U.S. power
grid are designed to handle natural and man-made disasters, as well as
fluctuations in demand; but what about physical attack?
As a result of the San Jose assault, the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) in April 2014 required the North America Energy
Reliability Corporation (NERC) to establish Critical Infrastructure
Protection (CIP) standards to “address physical security risks and
vulnerabilities related to the reliable operation” of the bulk power
system.
NERC developed and issued what is now commonly referred to as CIP-014-1.
This is a physical security standard that has a stated purpose to identify
and protect transmissions stations and transmission substations and their
associated primary control centers that—if rendered inoperable or damaged
as a result of a physical attack—could result in uncontrolled separation
or cascading within an interconnection.
[...]
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