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Coal, nuclear plant closures add to US grid's cyber risks, DOE chief warns

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Coal, nuclear plant closures add to US grid's cyber risks, DOE chief warns

Days after a draft document leaked outlining the Trump administration's potential plans to support struggling coal and nuclear power plants, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said "fuel-secured" generating units are critical in safeguarding America's power grid and economy from cyberattacks, physical attacks and natural disasters.

President Donald Trump "is right to view grid resilience as a serious national security issue," Perry said at the U.S. Department of Energy's 2018 cyber conference in Austin, Texas, on June 4.

"Fuel secured-units are retiring at an alarming rate that if unchecked threaten our ability to recover from intentional attacks or from natural disasters," Perry said.

Perry linked the importance of the "critical resources" of nuclear and coal with bolstering cybersecurity defenses. "We can't achieve the security of our nation without a strong defense in the cyber battlefield," he said. "The consequences of a grid failure would be devastating."

Trump on June 1 directed that the DOE take action to stop such retirements on the same day a draft addendum leaked detailing the administration's plans to require grid operators to buy power from financially struggling coal-fired and nuclear plants. The document asserted that keeping these electricity sources online is needed for national defense.

The proposals have so far received sharp rebuts from officials outside of the coal and nuclear sectors. The American Petroleum Institute, representing the oil and natural gas industry, joined a broad group of energy industry associations representing energy efficiency and storage, solar and wind to condemned the efforts as subsidizing "failing" coal and nuclear plants.

The PJM Interconnection, the operator of the nation's largest electricity market, also called the plans unnecessary. "Any federal intervention in the market to order customers to buy electricity from specific power plants would be damaging to the markets and therefore costly to consumers," a PJM statement said.

But Perry said that action is necessary because much of the nation's energy distribution infrastructure is vulnerable to cyberattack. "We must be focused on protecting the infrastructure like [natural gas] pipelines … but we cannot forget the rest of the fuels that make our grid diverse, reliable and resilient," Perry said.

Perry noted a February report by the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers that said cyberattacks cost the U.S. economy $57 billion to $109 billion in damages in 2016. He also relayed that the U.S. Office of the Director of Intelligence assessed that hostile adversaries are likely to seek capabilities in the next five years that can "put America's critical infrastructure, as well as broader ecosystems like 'the Internet of Things,' at serious risk."

A May 30 report by the DOE evaluated the potential scope and duration of a prolonged power outage caused by a significant cyber incident but concluded the U.S. power sector is generally prepared to manage most electricity disruptions even though the risks of major cyberattacks are growing in frequency, sophistication and scale.