At RealClearPolicy James Cunningham calls for securing the electrical grid. Here’s his proposed program:
1. A thorough and candid assessment of exactly where improvements and upgrades are needed, in order of priority, to be completed as soon as possible.
2. Development of a collective national plan, driven by Congress and the administration, in partnership with the full range of infrastructure entities, to drive key short- and long-term grid improvements.
3. Regulatory reform, including the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s establishment of improved and consistent standards for the North American bulk power system adequate to the threats we face.
4. Identification of public and private funding mechanisms to raise the necessary financing in an equitable manner.
which highlights the scope of the problem. The complex web of private utilities, cooperatives, and public agencies that operate the electrical grid don’t have the mindset, culture, or resources to do what he’s asking and even if they did it wouldn’t secure the electrical grid.
Rather than the top-down centrally controlled plan he envisions what is needed is something more akin to the personal computer revolution and the World Wide Web. We need to decentralize rather than centralize and build resilience in rather than imposing it through national plans. The advantage is with the offense in issues of security. We can’t avoid attacks. The objective of securing the grid should be to mitigate the risk of an attack on part of the grid bringing other parts down.
