Posted on 12/28/2013 2:15:07 PM PST by Daralundy
When U.S. officials warn about "attacks" on electric power facilities these days, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a computer hacker trying to shut the lights off in a city with malware. But a more traditional attack on a power station in California has U.S. officials puzzled and worried about the physical security of the the electrical grid--from attackers who come in with guns blazing.
Around 1:00 AM on April 16, at least one individual (possibly two) entered two different manholes at the PG&E Metcalf power substation, southeast of San Jose, and cut fiber cables in the area around the substation. That knocked out some local 911 services, landline service to the substation, and cell phone service in the area, a senior U.S. intelligence official told Foreign Policy. The intruder(s) then fired more than 100 rounds from what two officials described as a high-powered rifle at several transformers in the facility. Ten transformers were damaged in one area of the facility, and three transformer banks -- or groups of transformers -- were hit in another, according to a PG&E spokesman.
Cooling oil then leaked from a transformer bank, causing the transformers to overheat and shut down. State regulators urged customers in the area to conserve energy over the following days, but there was no long-term damage reported at the facility and there were no major power outages. There were no injuries reported. That was the good news. The bad news is that officials don't know who the shooter(s) were, and most importantly, whether further attacks are planned.
(Excerpt) Read more at complex.foreignpolicy.com ...
if they can get in that easy, cracking a couple of transmission voltage insulators can could cause widespread damage that would take weeks to fix.
But then again, the ultimate fear if the SOB’s know what their doing, is shorting the transmission voltage to the downside of a substation transformer. I won’t describe the calamity, but let’s just put it this way: it would probably get more news coverage then say... 9/11
There will always be vulnerabilities in our infrastructure and it is doubtful that new federal agencies or hordes of new federal employees will fix it. This is the problem with our political leaders as we saw post 9/11. There only solution is new agencies, more employees, and spending more money.
I have said many times and I am sure most agree that we have been fortunate that AQ and our enemies are hyper-focused on the spectacular when they could bleed us to death financially (and emotionally) with lots of small low-tech attacks.
Government will naturally try to harden every target they hit, but the real danger is that government at most levels is already unaffordable. They could bring us to our knees if they were smart.
Probably "at the transformer" would cover it.
He means a .223 rifle, but doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s .22 caliber too, right? :-)
There is a lot of serious hardware in that photograph.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-investigate-weekend-shooting-at-tenn-nuclear-plant/
Did you mean this one? Your link is bad.
That's all that's left after all the glass insulators on the poles were shot off...
seriously? That concerns me more than the initial story.
Hi, can you tell me why all my posts are subject to review?
Probably because you aren’t grasping much of what is being posted to you.
IQ is not your strong suit.
See post #9 and replies...
FBI has it's new, standard description handy:
Problem solved.
There was an episode of Doomsday Preppers where one of the preppers plans after the apocalypse was to shoot the bottoms of transformers to collect the mineral oil. He did this and then threw a tarp down and collected some of the oil.
This was near San Jose, so they probably have a California dialectic. Could be a surfer dude dialectic or a valley girl dialectic.
Correct, from which the oil can be salvaged for other purposes if needed, like burning in an engine.
What? Bad link = no think?
Your Indication of Quality or IQ is posting a bad link. My links work. My IQ or Indication of Quality is high.
Israeli Independence Day in 2013 was April 16, maybe it was a Hizbollah dry run, or even a demonstration of what they could do designed to “persuade.”
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