Grid Resiliency Against Cyber Threats and Wildfires

Written by: Sagnik Basumallik, Paroma Chatterjee, Anurag Srivastava

Evolving cyber threats, extreme weather events, and climate change are posing challenge to the reliable and resilient operation of electric power grids. The 2015-2016 Ukraine attack was the first cyber event resulting in a widespread power outage. On the other hand, California continues to bear the brunt of devastating wildfires, where more than 2 million assets are at high to extreme risk.1 The Department of Energy (DoE) has estimated that power outages cost the U.S. economy 150 billion annually.2 The impact of prolonged power outages affects interdependent water, gas, communication, and transport networks, undermining national security, and resulting in economic losses to damaged assets to life loss. As a result, the resiliency of the grid has become more important than ever before. The cross-cutting strategies presented in this article allow us to transition from grid security to grid resiliency through technology advancements, efficient operator training, and promoting effective public policy.