Mastering (Electro)-Magnetism: Protecting the Grid from
EMP and Geomagnetic Storms | Blog Post
The new movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past—set to release
on May 23rd—reintroduces everyone’s favorite magnetic powered
mutant, Magneto to the big screen. Magneto wields a destructive power,
he uses his mastery over magnetism to levitate objects, and turn guns on
their owners. However, a few parlor tricks displayed by a movie villain
does not convey the real, devastating threat electromagnetism poses to
the U.S. power grid. Despite the fact that the current U.S. grid is
inadequate on many fronts (link to previous blog), it is particularly
susceptible to electromagnetism, both naturally occurring geomagnetic
storms, and man-made devices (potentially terrorist initiated) electromagnetic pulses (EMPs).
Geomagnetic Storms
The major danger of geomagnetic storms to critical infrastructure is the
relative alacrity in which they appear. A massive eruption of charged
particles issues from the surface of the sun at unpredictable intervals, and
travels outward toward earth. These storms arrive at Earth anywhere
between 14 and 96 hours.1 Being unpredictable as they are, warning is
minimal at best. NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer satellite can give
minimal warning of the strength of a geomagnetic storm, with only 30
minutes of advance warning before it strikes. Fast and effective response
to geomagnetic storms is of preeminent concern for those whose job it is
to secure critical infrastructure. When the storm reaches Earth it “disrupts
earth’s magnetic field by producing geomagnetically induced currents
(GICs).2
These GICs can enter the power grid at multiple points of ingress, typically
from transformer stations, and they can travel through the power lines to
effect larger areas of the grid. The older portions of the power grid are at
the greatest risk. Older transformers cannot take the fluctuations of energy
coursing through the transmission lines and can overheat and overload.
Newer portions of the system with a more intelligent design will try to
contain the fluctuations of GICs, cutting off non-essential pathways, but
this is not guaranteed. An outage caused by a typical geomagnetic
1
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20140226-protecting-the-grid-fromgeomagnetic-storms
2
See Citation 1
storm is of little long-term risk, but a more massive storm could potentially
disrupt service to 130 million customers, and the damage to the physical
grid could literally take years to recover from.3
Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP)
The resiliency of the U.S. power grid to EMP attack is severely lacking, we
do not currently employ hardened electronics in our substations and
transformers that would shield against the ravaging gamma rays released
by a nuclear device exploded miles above the U.S. These rays would
course through every piece of unshielded electronic equipment. 4 Such
an EMP attack on the U.S. power grid would be, in the estimation of a
congressional commission tasked to research this type of attack, in a
word, “catastrophic.”5 The backbone of our critical infrastructure would
be broken, with over 1,000 transformers either damaged or destroyed. The
resultant power outages would cause all other critical infrastructure to fail
in a domino effect.
Enemies of the U.S. are aware of this vulnerability to our critical
infrastructure, namely Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. In fact several
foreign agents have been captured in attempts to steal electronics
hardening technology, which could be used to protect themselves
against a similar EMP attack. If these enemies were to exploit our grid
vulnerability it could spell the end of American military might as all of our
critical infrastructures fail and it takes years to reestablish the grid. Dr.
Henry Cooper, former director of the Strategic Defense Initiative
Organization, stated that in addition to our failure in effectively deploying
hardened electronics in our grid, we do not have sufficient warning radars
or missile defenses to protect against a surprise attack.6 In essence we are
inviting disaster.
However, ICS has solutions to help you maintain integrity in the event of
such a heinous attack. If you cannot communicate, you cannot operate.
That is why ICS offers you hardened electronics and communications
3
See Citation 1
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2013/07/29/e-m-p-vulnerability-invitescatastrophe/
5
See citation 4
6
See Citation 4
4
equipment to help maintain communications and command and control
during an incident such as this. This can give you the advantage in
maintaining integrity, or rapidly repairing damage to transformers and
substations to bring your critical infrastructure back online. Contact ICS to
inquire about our hardened solutions.
About ICS: Incident Communication Solutions, LLC (ICS) engineers complex communication solutions
on multiple platforms for emergency response applications. First Responders, Incident Commanders
and Business Continuity Managers from both public and private organizations leverage ICS’s
engineering expertise when seeking advanced data/voice/video communications solutions
www.incidentcommunications.com
info@incidentcommunications.com