Four Washington substations were attacked Christmas Day, leaving thousands without power during extreme cold and adding to the growing list of assaults on the Pacific Northwest electric grid.
Substations in and around Tacoma were vandalized on Sunday: three early in the morning, and a fourth reported around 7 p.m., according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. Two of the stations were owned and operated by Tacoma Public Utilities, and the other two were operated by Puget Sound Energy (PSE).
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department has asked local residents to “review surveillance video for suspicious activity” near the four power facilities, located in Spanaway, Graham, South Hill and Kapowsin.
During the Kapowsin break-in, equipment damage resulted in a significant fire, officers reported.
“The suspect(s) gained access to the fenced area and vandalized the equipment which caused the fire,” the sheriff’s office reported. “There are no suspects in custody at this time.”
The other attacks, too, involved forced entry into fenced areas and resulted in heavily damaged equipment, police said.
At this point, law enforcement officers do not have suspects or a motive, nor are they ready to link the Christmas Day break-ins to six previous incidents around western Washington and Oregon.
“People want to associate [Sunday’s incidents] with whatever’s going on in North Carolina and Oregon and Southern Washington,” Sgt. Darren Moss, a department spokesperson, told the Seattle Times. “We’re [just] guessing until we have more information.”
The attacks left more than 14,000 people without power on Christmas Day, though most had power restored later that evening. At least 1,000 people around Tacoma were still without power Monday afternoon, the Seattle Times reported.
While the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office is taking the lead in investigating the Christmas Day attacks, agencies around western Washington and Oregon have turned to the FBI for help investigating the six attacks that occurred around Thanksgiving and in the days after.
“The FBI remains vigilant and works closely with our law enforcement partners on a daily basis to detect, disrupt, and dismantle any threats that may emerge,” FBI Seattle Spokesperson Amy Alexander told the Cascadia Daily News earlier this month. “As always, we ask members of the public to report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”
Six substations were attacked in late November and early December with guns, fire and break-ins, with several of the attacks mirroring the Dec. 3 terrorist incident at two substations in North Carolina.
There have been no reported attacks of vandalism at Whatcom County substations, said Deb Slater, Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office community programs coordinator.
“There’s definitely a heightened level of awareness following these type of events,” she told the Cascadia Daily News Tuesday. “The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office is not aware of … any reports of vandalism at the county substations.”
CBS News, via “60 Minutes,” has reported extensively on potential vulnerabilities to the U.S. power grid, including threats as complex as cyber warfare and as simple as homegrown terrorism with vandals using common rifles.
It’s unknown if the four Christmas Day attacks are related to previous assaults on the grid, or if they’re tied to increasing terrorism-related threats.
In early December, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ordered the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to review existing security rules for substations and control stations across the country.
“It reminds us that we need to take physical security into account just as we do cyber security,” FERC Chairman Richard Glick said. “But in the meantime, I think it’s a good idea, and this is a good step, of trying to reassess our existing physical security standards and whether changes need to be made.”
