Eliminating the Vulnerability of the Electricity Grid and Transportation Sector

R. James Woosley, Venture Partner with VantagePoint Venture Partners and former Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, provided a superb lunch-session dialogue regarding the security of the electric power grid. Woosley began by arguing that there are two types of system failures in the world: those that are malignment and those that are malevolent. Malignment failures are those that happen by chance and not as a result of a motive of an individual or party. The Northeast Blackout of August 2003 would classify as a malignment failure. This event happened due to neglect and accident when a wire touched a branch in Ohio, causing the stability of the grid to be jeopardized. Malevolent failures, on the other hand, are those that happen on purpose, usually as a result of an active motive. Malevolent failures of the power grid, for example, would include terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure.

The vulnerability of the electric grid is, according to Woosley, one of the greatest dangers to the security of the country. Not only is the grid vulnerable to physical attacks, it is also increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks. Indeed, there is a growing sophistication of ability to use cyber attacks to cause damage to physical infrastructure. The vulnerability of the grid is a serious issue especially when one considers that if there were a serious attack on a critical component it could take months—if not years—to recover.

Woosley maintained that it is essential that the nation focus on securing the grid. He insisted that “this country can do anything it wants to if it gets itself together” and that security of the grid is an issue that the entire nation must come together to solve collectively and promptly. Transportation is the second issue of concern to Woosley due to the notion that the possibility of attacks on oil infrastructure certainly exist and have occurred twice in the last three years. Indeed, oil is a centerpiece of intentional malevolent actions against the West and this situation must, and can be fixed.

To explain how we must fix the vulnerability of the transportation sector, Woosley employed an analogy, comparing today’s oil markets to the salt markets of centuries past. For thousands of years salt was a huge commodity and was even the focal point of some wars and conflict. The importance of salt, which was primarily used to preserve meat, was quickly eradicated with the electrification of the country and the emergence of refrigeration. Woosley argued that we need to do the same thing with oil. We need to eradicate the importance of oil by introducing viable alternatives.

These alternatives, according to Woosley, will take the form of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles accompanied by an emergence of more sophisticated and advanced battery technology. Further, this technology can be complimented by the emergence of advanced biofuel technologies utilizing plant matter that does not compete with food such as biomass and waste. A combination of hybrid technology and biofuel technology could lead to a situation where drivers simply do not need oil anymore—that is, oil would go the way of salt. Oil would still be used in select applications, but it would no longer be a commodity of importance to US drivers.

The mixture of revolution in the electricity grid and transportation industries would yield a tremendously more secure United States. Energy, whether in the form of electricity or fuel for vehicles, would be domestic, plentiful, and less susceptible to price fluctuations or malevolent attacks. Now it is up to organizations such as IEEE-USA to assist in making the revolution happen.