Protect Our Power urges funding for grid security in infrastructure bill

Protect Our Power, a nonprofit group promoting grid security, is calling on the Biden administration and Congress to make grid security and resilience a top priority in pending infrastructure legislation.

The organization’s renewed call was made more urgent by the recent cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline that has temporarily shut it down.

“We’ve been warned repeatedly during the last several years by major U.S intelligence agencies that a crippling cyberattack on our critical infrastructure was not a question of if, but when,” Jim Cunningham, executive director at Protect Our Power, said. “The Colonial pipeline cyberattack, on the heels of the SolarWinds attack, makes it clear that our electric infrastructure is vulnerable and in need of significant security upgrades. The devastating weather-related power outages in Texas in February demonstrates the financial and social costs of losing power even for a short period of time.”

Protect Our Power has proposed a grid security funding plan that recommends an investment of approximately $22 billion over the next five years. Of that amount, they recommend allocating $12 billion to municipal power companies and rural electric utilities to offset the cost impact that would be incurred by dramatically improving grid resilience programs. Another $5 billion should go to build more secure communications systems that control actual power system operations, while $3 billion should be used to upgrade the quality and availability of resources needed by government officials and state regulators to conduct the prudent oversight. In addition, they suggest $1 billion for regional power grid operators to upgrade their systems to prevent cyberattacks and $500 million for incentives for the power industry supply chain.

“The Administration has pledged to make further hardening our nation’s electric grid against cyberattacks a key part of comprehensive infrastructure legislation,” Cunningham said. “Timing is now more urgent than ever for the federal government, the utility industry, and the states to come together and provide a national solution to address this looming national problem.”

Protect Our Power also suggests more funding for testing centers to ensure the integrity of critical grid hardware and software components before installation, among other initiatives.

“We look forward to working with the Administration and Congress to craft an infrastructure bill that has electric grid resilience and security as a priority and to having Congress pass a comprehensive measure that protects our nation’s electric grid from ever-increasing cyberattacks,” Cunningham added.