Power Blackout Risks

figure 3: potential causes of power blackouts
Solar storm
Lack of investment,
ageing infrastructure
Increased volatility due to 
solar and wind power
Mega cities
Blackout
Increased demand
Economic upswing
• Lack of cooling water
• Lack of hydro capacity
Climate change
• Ice storm
• Snow storm
• Wind storm
• Lightning
• Flood
Failure of transmission
Failure of production
• Terrorism
• Earthquake
• Construction defects
• Operating Errors
Heat waves

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10
power supply as potential terrorism and military target 
Power supply industry is classified as a critical infrastructure. These are organisational and physical structures 
and facilities of such vital importance to a nation’s society and economy that their failure or degradation would 
result in dramatic consequences. 
For this reason, power supply systems have always been military targets and can also be in focus for terrorist 
groups which want to undermine economic and social stability.
BOMBING:
Acts of war, terrorism and sabotage may focus on dams, power plants, substations and high voltage 
transmission lines. 
During the Korean 1952 war U.S. military attacked several dams and power plants to wipe out roughly 90% of 
North Korean electricity generation.
In April 1995 anti-nuclear energy activists bombed the main 380 kV supply line for Vienna in Ebergassing 
(Austria). Two of the four bombs detonated too early because of the electric induction too early and killed the 
activists without causing damage to the line.
In January 2005 a high voltage line was damaged by terrorists in Georgia.
Several terrorist groups have threathened to destroy dams in the U.S., leading to high security efforts and the 
closure of many dams since 9/11.
CyBER ATTACKS:
During the last decade the likelihood of so-called cyber attacks increased. Such attacks try to shut down
or destroy critical power supply components, e.g. large generators or transformers, via the Internet. 
Vulnerability for cyber attacks has risen substantially due to the ongoing move from propriety software to 
IP-(internet protocol) based systems that use commercial software, which can be attacked by intruders. 
The U.S. Aurora test in 2007 showed how a generator room at the Idaho National Laboratory was remotely 
accessed by a hacker and a USD 1 m diesel-electric generator was physically destroyed.
Another example, the 
stuxnet virus which was developed to obtain control over the operation of Iran’s nuclear
power plants, demonstrates new possibilities in cyber attacks used not only by individual criminals or terrorists,
but also by foreign states. 
HEMP AND IEMI ATTACKS:
It is well known that nuclear bombs emit a strong electromagnetic pulse. If detonated at high altitudes (> 100 km) 
above the earth’s surface such bombs are called a HEMP (high altitude electromagnetic pulse) weapon. Already 
in 1962 a military test 400 km above the Pacific proved the power of such an attack. 
As an unintended side effect the power and telephone infrastructure of Hawaii was affected despite the small 
bomb (1.4 Mt) and the far distance (1500 km) from the point of detonation. 
IEMI (Intentional Electro Magnetic Interference) attacks use special high power electromagnetic weapons without 
any of the side effects of a classic explosion and with limited impact area. 
Both such weapons have the capacity to cause similar types of damage, such as severe solar storms (see 
separate box
). HEMPs or IEMIs can lead to severe physical damage to all unprotected electronics and transformers 
by inducing several 100 to 1000s of volts. Typically microchips operate in the range of 1.5 to 5 volts and are 
therefore not capable of withstanding such voltages. The impact area can be in the range of several hundred 
meters to an entire continent.
In the U.S. the