Given the diversity of these threats, experts are now advising that utilities undergo threat assessments based on specific challenges posed by their location and unique vulnerabilities.

You’ve seen them, though they’re not much to look at – gravel patches of dull gray poles and metal boxes strung with wires, coils, and pipes. The U.S. grid consists of around 55,000 substations, high-voltage equipment used for the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity across the country. Usually found off to the side of some unassuming rural road or industrial park, we drive by substations each day with little thought, just some dystopian (this is the second use of dystopian in writing in my entire life.) art exhibits lining our commute. But for bad actors intent on creating chaos, substations represent something much more valuable – the perfect target.

One of substation’s primary functions is to (the main roles of substations is to) convert electricity into the correct (different) voltages that can be used by (so it can be transmitted into) our homes and businesses. Without substations, electricity cannot be measured, and voltage levels cannot be switched or regulated because the equipment is specifically designed to handle particular voltages of power. When this happens, the power goes out and cities or regions can shut down. Given its critical importance, you’d assume this infrastructure would be heavily guarded round-the-clock. Nope. Instead, substations are usually just surrounded by a chain-link fence, the security equivalent of protecting a basketball court.

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