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ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
 PROTECTION FROM THE UNIMAGINABLE
By Laurence W. Brown, director of legal affairs, retail energy, and Cal Odom, director of governmental relations, at Edison Electric Institute.
Thanks to electric utilities' long experience in handling natural disasters and to its more recent Y2K preparations, the industry's response to September 11's attacks was immediate and comprehensive. The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) placed on full alert its 21 security coordinators, who manage utility critical infrastructure (CI) protection activities in cooperation with the Department of Energy's (DOE's) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) programs. Utilities nationwide secured their facilities.
But the attacks underscored the sad reality that CI industries are vulnerable in ways hitherto unimaginable. Utilities have traditionally dealt with natural disasters, but terrorist threats to their facilities pose new security and restoration challenges.
Now, companies are reviewing their response plans, communications networks, and relationships with DOE, FBI, and NERC. Edison Electric Institute immediately established a CEO-level task force on CI protection. Among the task force's goals are to develop best practices for coordination among all CI industries and between industry and government and to establish a national database of critical inventory.
CI protection also requires a look at many federal policies. We can do some things right now.
Basic Steps to Security
Cooperation between utilities and the federal government is essential. Joint research and development is a good example. Congress should establish a public-private partnership to boost the development of advanced security technologies. Toward that end, EPRI has proposed specific antiterrorist R&D initiatives, combining industry and government capabilities. Congress can also direct the Defense Department and DOE to share existing protection and analysis technologies with CI industries.
Federal security programs that already partner with utilities—e.g., DOE's and FBI's programs—should receive reliable, increased funding.
Expansion of wholesale electricity markets has increased the stress on the transmission system—uniform rules for its reliable operation will improve its security. A self-regulating reliability organization, with federal oversight, should be established to enforce binding rules and standards.
Each physical constraint on the system is a point of vulnerability. Congress can help eliminate such constraints by supporting what utilities have advocated—additional FERC authority to help site new transmission lines, a streamlined siting process for lines on federal lands, financial incentives to attract additional transmission and generation investment, repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act, and revision of the tax code to remove impediments to investment.
Information Protection
One of the best routes to a protected infrastructure is through voluntary industry-wide and private-public information-sharing programs. Electric utilities now provide a wealth of data about system design and operations to regulators and government agencies. But this also raises security concerns. A limited, specific exemption from the Freedom of Information Act for certain sensitive data is necessary, as well as an antitrust exemption for certain information-sharing activities within the industry.
The problem becomes even more acute when information must be put on the internet in real time, giving easy access to anyone looking for weak links in the grid. Market participants and regulators need timely information, but access to sensitive information must be controlled.
From Defense to Restoration
A key aspect of CI protection is restoring service quickly and safely. For example, in the hours after the World Trade Center attack, Con Edison's only reliable means of communication were email and wireless messaging, due to overload from other users. Utilities must have adequate communications in emergencies, including wireless and wireline. The Federal Communications Commission should set aside adequate radio spectrum and landlines for "public safety" users.
Insurers are already considering new terrorism exclusions to utility property and liability policies; and experts estimate there is not enough private capital in the market to cover the insurance risks from an electric system attack. Congress should consider a public-private insurance backstop, as well as statutory liability limits, for extraordinary events.
Congress could also amend the Stafford Act to make all utilities, not just municipals and cooperatives, eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster assistance. And it could direct the Department of Transportation to exempt utilities from "hours of service" restrictions, which can limit deployment of labor during restoration.
There is a lot to do. Our economy runs on electricity—the robust health of the one is unimaginable without the other. But now that the truly unimaginable has occurred, CI protection must be among our top priorities.
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