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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
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PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR THE WORKSHOP ON THE RESILIENCE OF THE ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM TO TERRORISM AND NATURAL DISASTERS
M. GRANGER MORGAN, NAS,1 Carnegie Mellon University, Chair
CLARK W. GELLINGS, Electric Power Research Institute
DAVID K. OWENS, Edison Electric Institute
LOUIS L. RANA, Consolidated Edison Company (retired)
RICHARD E. SCHULER, Cornell University
SUSAN F. TIERNEY, Analysis Group
Staff
PETER BLAIR, Executive Director, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
DAVID W. COOKE, Associate Program Officer
ALAN CRANE, Senior Scientist
JAMES J. ZUCCHETTO, Director, Board of Energy and Environmental Systems
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1 National Academy of Sciences.
BOARD ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS
ANDREW BROWN, JR., NAE,1 Delphi Corporation, Troy, Michigan, Chair
WILLIAM F. BANHOLZER, NAE, Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan
WILLIAM CAVANAUGH III, NAE, Progress Energy (retired), Raleigh, North Carolina
PAUL A. DeCOTIS, Long Island Power Authority, Albany, New York
CHRISTINE EHLIG-ECONOMIDES, NAE, Texas A&M University, College Station
SHERRI GOODMAN, CNA, Alexandria, Virginia
NARAIN G. HINGORANI, NAE, Independent Consultant, San Mateo, California
ROBERT HUGGETT, Independent Consultant, Seaford, Virginia
DEBBIE NIEMEIER, University of California, Davis
DANIEL NOCERA, NAS,2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
MARGO OGE, Environmental Protection Agency (retired), McLean, Virginia
MICHAEL OPPENHEIMER, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
JACKALYNE PFANNENSTIEL, Independent Consultant, Piedmont, California
DAN REICHER, Stanford University, Stanford, California
BERNARD ROBERTSON, NAE, Daimler-Chrysler (retired), Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
GARY ROGERS, FEV, Inc., Auburn Hills, Michigan
ALISON SILVERSTEIN, Consultant, Pflugerville, Texas
MARK THIEMENS, NAS, University of California, San Diego
RICHARD WHITE, Oppenheimer & Company, New York City
ADRIAN ZACCARIA, NAE, Bechtel Group (retired), Frederick, Maryland
Staff
JAMES J. ZUCCHETTO, Senior Board/Program Director
DANA CAINES, Financial Associate
DAVID W. COOKE, Associate Program Officer
ALAN CRANE, Senior Scientist
K. JOHN HOLMES, Senior Program Officer/Associate Director
LaNITA JONES, Administrative Coordinator
ALICE V. WILLIAMS, Senior Program Assistant
JONATHAN YANGER, Senior Project Assistant
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1 National Academy of Engineering.
2 National Academy of Sciences.
Preface
The National Research Council (NRC) released a report, Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System,1 in 2012 that analyzed the vulnerability of the electric grid to terrorist attacks and measures to reduce that vulnerability. The report had been written in 2007 for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but publication was delayed because of security concerns. While most of the committee’s findings were still relevant, many developments affecting vulnerability had occurred in the interval. In order to expand familiarity with the report among potential users and explore recent and future trends, a workshop was held on February 27-28, 2013. The specific goals of the workshop were to discuss the committee’s results, what had changed in recent years, and how lessons learned about the grid’s resilience to terrorism could be applied to other threats to the grid resulting from natural disasters. The workshop focused on five key areas: physical vulnerabilities of the grid; cybersecurity; mitigation and response to outages; community resilience and the provision of critical services; and future technologies and policies that could enhance the resilience of the electric power delivery system.
This report is a summary of the presentations and discussions at the workshop. No effort was made to achieve any consensus views of the participants or the planning committee. The summary does not contain any conclusions or recommendations on the part of the NRC or any advice to the government. Nor does it represent a viewpoint of the National Academies or any of its constituent units, and no priorities are implied by the order in which the issues are presented. The workshop was recorded, and the videos may be viewed at http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DEPS/BEES/DEPS_081103.
The workshop was made possible through the hard work and dedication of the individuals who served on the NRC Committee on Enhancing the Robustness and Resilience of Future Electrical Transmission and Distribution in the United States to Terrorist Attack (Appendix A) as well as the invited presenters and workshop participants listed in Appendix B.
Special recognition is due to Daniel Ribas at Spark Street Lighting, who provided an excellent webcast of the workshop that was invaluable in the writing of this summary, and Sheryl Bottner of the NRC’s Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences (DEPS), who facilitated putting online both the presentations from the workshop and the webcast.
The committee is grateful to Peter Blair, DEPS Executive Director, and Paul Michaels of the NRC’s Office of Security for their work with the Department of Homeland Security to release an unclassified version of the report Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System.
This workshop summary has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the
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1 National Research Council, 2012, Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C..
NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for quality and objectivity. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the review process. The author would like to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Anjan Bose, Washington State University,
Paul A. DeCotis, Long Island Power Authority,
Narain G. Hingorani, Independent Consultant,
Paul J. Kern, The Cohen Group,
Richard E. Schuler, Cornell University,
Alison Silverstein, Independent Consultant, and
Bruce F. Wollenberg, University of Minnesota.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the report, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Chris Whipple of Environ. Appointed by the NRC, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the author and the institution.
David W. Cooke
Rapporteur