521-substation-metcalf-map

Assault on California Power Station Raises Alarm on Potential for Terrorism

February 5, 2014
 
SAN JOSE, Calif.—The attack began just before 1 a.m. on April 16 last year, when someone slipped into an underground vault not far from a busy freeway and cut telephone cables.
 
Within half an hour, snipers opened fire on a nearby electrical substation. Shooting for 19 minutes, they surgically knocked out 17 giant transformers that funnel power to Silicon Valley. A minute before a police car arrived, the shooters disappeared into the night.  Read the original WSJ article  about the susceptibility of the US power grid and how a critical vulnerability of being ignored.