Free Republic

SNIPPET: "AUSTRALIA'S most notorious terrorist Willie Brigitte will be free from jail next year having served less than half his sentence for conspiring to blow up the nation's only nuclear reactor and the power grid. The Caribbean-born Muslim convert made headlines in 2007 when he was sentenced in France to a maximum nine years, following his arrest in Sydney, for joining an al-Qaida-backed Pakistani terror cell out to bomb Lucas Heights nuclear plant, the national electricity grid or a military base. The French Justice Ministry is considering releasing the 41-year-old, on an early-release good-behaviour plan."

Security: An Iranian mullah once said "a world without America and Zionism" was a real possibility. Our sellout of Eastern Europe and missile defense brings that dream closer to reality. It would take only one warhead."Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." A...

Infrastructure: The stimulus plan to turn America's electrical infrastructure into a so-called "smart grid" is a potential target for unfriendly hackers. It's also the fulfillment of a campaign promise rooted in socialism.There is $4.5 billion in the stimulus package to modernize the nation's electricity system. The whole idea is to monitor where and when electricity is used and to direct it to where and when it is needed. It is thought this will help utilities to adjust their rates to immediate supply and demand for power. It would supposedly allow consumers to adjust their consumption to the times when they...

"Project Grey Goose and University at Albany SUNY to investigate major Power Grid blackouts caused by hackers" SNIPPET: "This is an open call for volunteers who wish to participate in a joint Project Grey Goose / University at Albany SUNY open source intelligence investigation into power grid blackouts caused by hacker attacks. The scope is global and includes the U.S. Interested parties should contact me from their work email address with an expression of interest, a brief bio, and your experience, if any, in SCADA systems in general or the power grid in particular. All respondents will be kept confidential....

A 90-page document released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released on September 24 proposes 77 standards for smart grid development. The report also detailed 14 areas that the government agency will prioritize in order to facilitate development. Utilities, regulators, and vendors have been waiting for this release from the NIST. The report details specific standards that utilities and developers will be expected to meet in their smart grid deployment. The institute will continue working on cybersecurity standards which should be released by the end of the year. The NIST began working on a set of standards...

Note: See comments after the blog entry. Chinese researchers show how the PRC “owns” the U.S. Power Grid I had a head-slapping “What the F” moment when I read the New Scientist story “How to Short-Circuit the U.S. Power Grid“. Let’s start with the fact that the military strategy of the PRC ever since the U.S. speedily won the first Iraq war has been to find ways to mitigate our technological superiority by attacking its most vulnerable point - the network. That includes, as the Wall Street Journal so sensationally reminded us, the U.S. power grid. How fast do you...

A well targeted attack against a small power grid subnetwork might result in a cascading failure across the entire US West Coast electricity grid, according to a Chinese academic. A team led by Jian-Wei Wang, a network analyst at China's Dalian University of Technology, discovered the potential weakness after using publicly available data to model the West Coast US electricity supply networks and its components. Cascading failures led to the August 2003 blackout in the north-east US. The Chinese team expected to discover that attacks against highly loaded networks carried the greater damage potential. The group analysed the power loading...

Conservation: The Chevy Volt is said to be able to get 230 miles per gallon. That's if it's continually plugged into a fragile and overburdened power grid. Where will you be when the lights go out?The folks at GM, now affectionately known as Government Motors, have made this astounding claim. Before you drive one off the lot, you should read the fine print. Chevrolet's caveat is that this assumes "a Volt driver (will) plug into the electric grid once each day" to get "40 miles of electric-only, petroleum-free driving." That depends on where you live, according to Adam Victor, president...

Conservation: The Chevy Volt is said to be able to get 230 miles per gallon. That's if it's continually plugged into a fragile and overburdened power grid. Where will you be when the lights go out? Since most U.S. electricity generation is not carbon-free, the Congressional Research Service agrees. The "widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid vehicles through 2030 may have only a small effect on, and might actually increase, carbon emissions," it observes. "If you are using coal-fired power plants and half the country's electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?"...

New electricity meters being rolled out to millions of homes and businesses are riddled with security bugs that could bring down the power grid, according to a security researcher who plans to demonstrate several attacks at a security conference next month. The so-called smart meters for the first time provide two-way communications between electricity users and the power plants that serve them. Prodded by billions of dollars from President Obama's economic stimulus package, utilities in Seattle, Houston, Miami, and elsewhere are racing to install them as part of a plan to make the power grid more efficient. Their counterparts throughout...

U.S. concerns about the potential for cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure extended to the American electrical power grid on Wednesday and experts pointed the finger anew at Chinese hackers, among others. As a result, electric utilities are likely to face new pressures from the U.S. Congress and government regulators to tighten security and preparations against computer intrusions that would wreak widespread havoc. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters the power grid is vulnerable to potentially disabling computer attacks, while declining to comment on reports that an intrusion had taken place. "The vulnerability is something that the Department of Homeland...

Let's have a simple discussion here and less in news format, more of a chat. It's a long chat but it might intrigue you and I assure you quite real and very dangerous kind of chat. In 2001 immediately after 911, I spoke to RC Covozos, the White House Database administrator. I let him know that I had found security gaps in the White House where our politicians liason with our intelligence agencies. RC was very thankful and a nice guy to talk to. He seemed to take his job very seriously. Since I had some ideas that seemed interesting...

Foreign hackers have reportedly managed to break into the computer network controlling the nation's power grid. The discovery has raised alarm about how such unauthorized access could be used to harm the U.S., though the discovery may motivate actions to strengthen the security systems surrounding the nation's infrastructure. A Wall Street Journal report that foreign hackers have repeatedly penetrated the U.S. power grid computer network has delivered a loud wake-up call. Cyber-spies from countries including China and Russia have breached the electrical infrastructure's computer network and left software tools behind that would have allowed them to control or destroy infrastructure...

WASHINGTON -- Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials. The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.

WASHINGTON – Democratic congressional leaders and the Obama administration indicated Monday that they will push for greater federal authority to locate electric transmission lines, saying a national power grid stands in the way of developing alternative energy sources. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he will soon introduce legislation that includes giving federal regulators authority to override states on electric grid placement decisions as part of a package of energy proposals the Senate is expected to take up in the coming weeks. "We cannot let 231 state regulators hold up progress," Reid said, referring to the members of state...

IMAGINE if the nation's transportation infrastructure had been designed to serve only small regions, with wheat from Iowa easily reaching bakeries in Des Moines but not New York or computer products from the Silicon Valley easily reaching stores in Los Angeles but not Chicago. Costs of goods would vary widely among regions, and the economy would suffer.  Welcome to the world of electricity, where separate transmission systems - the "transportation" infrastructure of electricity - built by local utilities for local customers now serve as a national network.While not a "third-world transmission system," as some said after the huge East Coast...

ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2008) — Engineers and entrepreneurs are rushing to explore alternative sources of efficient and renewable energy in New Jersey and elsewhere in the country. A Rutgers School of Business—Camden professor has strong words of caution as projects involving wind farms and photovoltaic cells proliferate.With the electric-power industry poised for its most dramatic changes in decades, too little thought is being devoted to coordinating these piecemeal initiatives, warns Richard Michelfelder in a recent edition of The Electricity Journal, the leading policy journal for the electric industry.The consequence, he fears, might well be a disastrous overload of the nation’s...

Adding electricity from the wind and the sun could increase the frequency of blackouts and reduce the reliability of the nation’s electrical grid, an industry report says. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation says in a report scheduled for release Monday that unless appropriate measures are taken to improve transmission of electricity, rules reducing carbon dioxide emissions by utilities could impair the reliability of the power grid. The corporation is the industry body authorized by the federal government to enforce reliability rules for the interlocking system of electrical power generation and transmission. Such carbon-reduction rules are already in place in...

Enviro Group Lawsuits, Cost Concerns, Climate Regulation Uncertainty Cited As Major Obstacles To Grid Improvements Denver, CO (Oct. 1, 2008) -- A new study released this week highlights what experts have been saying for years: the U.S. faces significant risk of power brownouts and blackouts as early as next summer that may cost tens of billions of dollars and threaten lives. The study, "Lights Out In 2009?" warns that the U.S. "faces potentially crippling electricity brownouts and blackouts beginning in the summer of 2009, which may cost tens of billions of dollars and threaten lives." "If particularly vulnerable regions, like...

Some stuck without power powerless to fight bank fees Friday, September 19, 2008 By Margaret Harding THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH When his power returned without Internet service Monday, Tom Perry had a bit of a financial freakout. "It was kind of a panic-stricken moment there: 'Oh, no, what am I going to do?' " said Perry, whose credit-card and mortgage payment were both due that day. Perry, like many others, pays his bills online. Online banking and bill payment are pushed as the easiest and most efficient ways to handle such transactions, but a power outage such as the one central...

Two new utilities have joined a group of existing Texas transmission owners seeking state approval to build more than $5 billion in new power lines needed to tap the state's abundant wind generation. The group will file a detailed proposal of its construction plan with the Texas Public Utility Commission on Friday, according to a press release. New lines are needed to move electricity from the state's windiest areas in the west to power-hungry cities. The commission wants to see enough new transmission to accommodate about 18,500 megawatts of wind generation by 2012. The existing transmission operator group includes Dallas-based...

Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands. The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not. The grid today, according to experts, is a system conceived 100 years ago to let utilities prop each other up, reducing blackouts and sharing power in small regions. It resembles a network of streets, avenues and country roads. “We need an interstate transmission superhighway system,” said Suedeen...

The Energy Challenge When the builders of the Maple Ridge Wind farm spent $320 million to put nearly 200 wind turbines in upstate New York, the idea was to get paid for producing electricity. But at times, regional electric lines have been so congested that Maple Ridge has been forced to shut down even with a brisk wind blowing. That is a symptom of a broad national problem. Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new...

We haven't talked about a good environmentalist wild-west style shootout in a while. Authorites in California have endorsed the construction of a 150 mile electricity transmisson line to carry power from wind and solar projects in the desert to San Diego. State law requires utilities to supply 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2010 – a benchmark SDG&E has said it cannot meet. The San Diego utility supplies 6% today. Unfortunately the transmission lines are proposed to go through some pretty areas and some environmentalists aren't too happy. “The idea that we’re going to sacrifice critical pieces of...

In this year's great energy debate, Democrats describe a future when the U.S. finally embraces the anything-but-carbon avant-garde. It turns out, however, that when wind and solar power do start to come on line, they face a familiar obstacle: environmentalists and many Democrats. To wit, the greens are blocking the very transmission network needed for renewable electricity to move throughout the economy. The best sites for wind and solar energy happen to be in the sticks -- in the desert Southwest where sunlight is most intense for longest, or the plains where the wind blows most often. To exploit this...

Five years after the worst blackout in North American history, the country's largest power providers say the problems that turned out the lights on 50 million people have largely been resolved, but they fear that larger, systemic issues could soon lead to even bigger and more damaging outages.

<p>Five years after the worst blackout in North American history, the country's largest power providers say the problems that turned out the lights on 50 million people have largely been resolved, but they fear that larger, systemic issues could soon lead to even bigger and more damaging outages.</p>

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK - News) and American Electric Power (AEP) (NYSE: AEP - News) have formed a 50-50 wholly-owned joint venture to build and operate 240 miles of extra-high-voltage 765-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines and related facilities in Indiana The project, called Pioneer Transmission LLC, would link Duke Energy's Greentown Station (near Kokomo, Ind.) with AEP's Rockport Station (east of Evansville, Ind.). The project will expand extra-high-voltage transmission to -- Improve the reliability of the nation's transmission grid -- Enhance the efficiency and reliability of the region's transmission operators - Midwestern Independent System Operator (MISO) and PJM Interconnection (PJM) --...

Cutting photocopier costs was once Randall Swisher's top concern, now it's redrawing the United States' power grid into a $60 billion superhighway. When Swisher became executive director of the industry group the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) in 1989, he had four employees and fuel was cheap. So the energy business largely ignored him. Ten years ago, cutting office costs topped the agenda. Swisher commissioned American Electric Power (AEP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the country's largest electricity transmitter and one of its largest power generators, to map how a new national network of power lines could potentially distribute wind...

Utility asks Brooklyn residents to avoid air-conditioning use despite heat wave Consolidated Edison Inc. urged thousands of customers to stop all non-essential electricity use as parts of Brooklyn, N.Y., suffered a power outage Sunday in the midst of heat wave. Con Ed said the outage had affected about 2,100 customers but that it had restored power to approximately 600 of those as of 11 a.m. Eastern time. As a result, it issued an appeal to those in the New York City borough's Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Borough Park, and Park Slope neighborhoods "to discontinue their use of non-essential electrical appliances,...

California state Sen. Jack Scott says he didn't intend to "be a party pooper." It's just that helium-filled foil balloons -- like those found at hospital gift shops and office parties -- are dangerous. They float into electric lines and cause power outages, more than 800 in California last year, utilities say. He drafted a bill to ban foil balloons; it sailed through the state Senate and now awaits a vote in the Assembly. ***** The pro-balloon people are hoping that even if the bill does pass, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will veto it. At a recent news conference, the governor...

BROOKHAVEN, N.Y. (MarketWatch) -- On the ground beneath a forest of power transmission towers in suburban Long Island, experimental wires cooled by liquid nitrogen carried 138,000 volts in flat strands about the size of linguini. Power executives, engineers, and the media gathered recently to officially throw the switch at the $60 million Holbrook Superconductor project, the world's first transmission power cable transmitting waves of electricity from the grid to a substation that feeds actual U.S. homes. Surrounded by stainless steel tubing and insulation, the three superconductors at Holbrook move power down a corridor only four feet wide. The 600-meter-long underground...

With fires still causing concern among California power grid operators, this week brings high heat that may lead to near-record electricity demand throughout the state, the grid manager said on Monday. The California Independent System Operator asked consumers to curb their power use in the peak 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. period Tuesday through Thursday as the grid nears capacity. The Cal ISO manages lines owned by the three big investor-owned utilities that handle 80 percent of the state's power flow. "This is going to be the first significant heat wave of the summer," said Cal ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle....

Take a wild guess Only 2 percent of the nation's electricity comes from so-called "renewable" sources -- wind turbines, solar panels and geothermal plants. Environmentalists dream of taking that number up to 100 percent, making all of America's utilities carbon-free. Getting even a tenth of the way toward that goal will require an awful lot of time and money. For one thing, getting that "green" electricity from the remote, open areas where the wind blows, the sun shines and the land is cheap to the urban areas that consume most of the nation's power will take thousands of miles of...

Fallout from The Energy Policy Act of 2005 by Diane M. Grassi, Featured Writer February 26, 2008 “Energy independence from foreign sources.” A mantra repeated over and over again by Al Gore, by the Hollywood elite and by candidates running for the 2008 Presidential nomination. But rarely is it ever pointed out how this phrase is but an oxymoron with respect to United States energy policy, which becomes ever more vulnerable, not just as the result of its failing infrastructure, but from misguided public policy decisions. And never is the topic broached publicly in how much of the US energy...

Experts peg wind power line cost at $3 bln a year. Texas billionaire and wind energy developer Boone Pickens said at a hearing in Washington Tuesday that the U.S. is exporting about $700 billion a year to feed its oil addiction, as he joined the call from energy leaders to use nuclear, natural gas, coal, wind, biofuels and solar to wean the country off imported crude. According to the Department of Energy, an investment of $60 billion in new transmission capacity is needed between now and 2030 to enable wind power to supply 20% of U.S. electricity. The cost would...

Duke Energy and smart grid company GridPoint said on Thursday that they have found a way for people to charge plug-in hybrid cars in a way that won't bring the power grid to its knees. "If suddenly you have 20,000 or 30,000 rechargeable cars--with maybe 50,000 in a few years--plugging into the grid at night, utilities have to react to that or you'll have serious problems," Lewis said in an October interview. "You see plug-in hybrids becoming a big issue; it's a tidal wave coming at utilities."

Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:11pm EST HOUSTON (Reuters) - A drop in wind generation late on Tuesday, coupled with colder weather, triggered an electric emergency that caused the Texas grid operator to cut service to some large customers, the grid agency said on Wednesday. Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said a decline in wind energy production in west Texas occurred at the same time evening electric demand was building as colder temperatures moved into the state. The grid operator went directly to the second stage of an emergency plan at 6:41...

Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency analyst said this week. Speaking at a conference of security professionals on Wednesday, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks while offering few specifics on what actually went wrong. Criminals have launched online attacks that disrupted power equipment in several regions outside of the U.S., he said, without identifying the countries affected. The goal of the attacks was extortion, he said. "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into...

Several cities outside the U.S. have sustained attacks on utility systems and extortion demands. Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency analyst said this week. Speaking at a conference of security professionals on Wednesday, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks while offering few specifics on what actually went wrong. Criminals have launched online attacks that disrupted power equipment in several regions outside of the U.S., he said, without identifying the countries affected. The goal of the attacks was extortion, he said....

Saturday, January 19, 2008 International computer hackers threatening to hold cities ransom January 18, 2008 CIA says hackers pulled plug on overseas power grid Overseas attacks recently declassified, but some details obscure By Robert McMillan (IDG News Service) -- Criminals have been able to hack into computer systems via the Internet and cut power to several cities, a Central Intelligence Agency analyst said this week. Speaking at a conference of security professionals on Wednesday, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks while offering few specifics on what actually went wrong. Criminals have launched online attacks that disrupted power...

Calculating the Risks in Pakistan A small group of U.S. military experts and intelligence officials convened in Washington for a classified war game last year, exploring strategies for securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal if the country's political institutions and military safeguards began to fall apart. The secret exercise — conducted without official sponsorship from any government agency, apparently due to the sensitivity of its subject — was one of several such games the U.S. government has conducted in recent years examining various options and scenarios for Pakistan's nuclear weapons: How many troops might be required for a military intervention in...

Iraq's power grid is on the brink of collapse because of insurgent sabotage, rising demand, fuel shortages and provinces that are unplugging local power stations from the national grid, officials said Saturday. Electricity Ministry spokesman Aziz al-Shimari said power generation nationally is only meeting half the demand, and there had been four nationwide blackouts over the past two days. The shortages across the country are the worst since the summer of 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, he said. Power supplies in Baghdad have been sporadic all summer and now are down to just a few...

China affected by power grid problems Junichi Miura / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer China's electricity output has been rising more than 10 percent every year since 2000, almost perfectly parallel to its macroeconomic growth rate. But China's power grid is threatening to become a serious Achilles' heel for its economy. The installation of new power transmission lines in China has been lagging badly behind the fast increase in power generation. The grid has been improving at only a single-digit pace per year--as low as about 2 percent--over the same period. As a result, China's coastal areas, the heart of its...

All Western Europe touched by the electric breakdown PARIS - All Western Europe was struck Saturday evening by electric breakdowns related to an important failure of the German grid system of electricity, indicated in the night of Saturday to Sunday the Grid system of French electricity RTE. Some five million French, is approximately 10% of the population, were private of electricity on this occasion. "They are approximately 5 million consumers who were private" of current, with AFP a door of RTE declared. They "were gradually réalimentées between 22H30 and 23H00", it added. "Of the similar cuts took place in...

AN ARCHITECT has been jailed for at least 15 years after becoming the first person convicted of planning a terrorist attack on Australian soil. Faheem Khalid Lodhi was today jailed for a maximum term of 20 years for acting in preparation for a terrorist attack. He sat quietly in the dock as Justice Anthony Whealy told the NSW Supreme Court Lodhi had intended to "advance violent giant jihad" in Australia. Lodhi, who was born in Pakistan but has Australian citizenship, had pleaded not guilty to all charges. Justice Whealy said the attack, if carried out, "would instil terror into members...

Australian sentenced for scheme targeting nation's electricity supply 08/22/06 11:45 PM, EDT An Australian man was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for a nascent plot to attack the country's power grid that the judge said was aimed at making Australians live in constant fear of bomb attacks.

Blackout sweeps across southeast Texas

There was a massive power outage Wednesday evening in at least seven counties in the Houston area. By 8 p.m. the following counties were confirmed to have experienced the blackout: Liberty, Montgomery, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity, Grimes and Walker. Two power facilities in Willis have failed, although it's not known if the failures are the cause or one of the results of the outage. St. Lukes Hospital in The Woodlands and Conroe Regional Medical Center are both operating on generator power, although it's not believed to be affecting patient care. Michelle Lyons with the Texas Department of Corrections said that...

California and federal energy officials warned Thursday that the electricity system in Southern California would face hard times this summer, especially if the weather was unusually hot, and that next summer might be even rougher. The southern half of the state "is the worst electricity supply situation in the entire country," Joseph Kelliher, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said at an electricity conference in San Francisco. "It's indisputable that there are problems, and some problems have remained for some time," he said. FERC Chairman Patrick H. Wood III, reflecting on the chaotic blackout days of the California...