Case Study 3: Terrorist Attack on the National Electrical Grid

This case study presents a risk assessment of a hypothetical terrorist attack on a portion of the national electrical grid. It presents a scoping analysis to examine the need and value added of such an assessment. The goal is to obtain insights on the risk of a terrorist attack of a specific region of the electrical grid serving several large metropolitan areas. Risk management is an integral part of the electricity sector's program of “critical infrastructure protection.” As such, these efforts are defined as “safeguarding the essential components of the electric infrastructure against physical and electronic threats in a manner consistent with appropriate risk management, with both industry and industry–government partnerships, while sustaining public confidence in the electricity sector.” This case study involves a risk assessment of a combined cyber and physical attack on a hypothetical electric power grid. The threat assessment part of the case study is more limited than the vulnerability assessment; this is primarily due to security considerations and a lack of resources to examine classified threat information.