One night last spring, snipers attacked a relatively remote
electrical substation near California's Silicon Valley. In what
appears to have been a very carefully planned strike, the
perpetrators cut underground communication cables, and then, under
cover of darkness, opened fire on the substation equipment with
automatic weapons. They damaged 17 large transformers before police
were able to respond.
Fortunately, the region did not experience any power outages, as
operators – once they became aware of what had happened
– were able to re-route some power around the damaged
facility, but it took the utility a month to repair the equipment.
The attackers were never caught.
The California facility was not deemed a "critical
interconnect," meaning that damage to it was unlikely to have
a catastrophic impact. In fact, there are only about a hundred
electrical facilities nationwide that are deemed
"critical" in the sense that damage to them would result
in wide-spread,
