April 2014

Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability U.S. Department of Energy

The U.S. electric power grid is one of the Nation’s critical life-line functions on which many other critical infrastructure depend, and the destruction of this infrastructure can have a significant impact on national security and the U.S. economy. The electric power infrastructure faces a wide variety of possible threats, including natural, physical, cyber, and space weather. While the potential effect of these threats on the infrastructure is uncertain, public and private stakeholders in the energy industry are considering and developing a variety of risk management strategies to mitigate the effects.

May 1, 2020

Executive Order 13920 (President Trump)

Section 1. Prohibitions and Implementation.

(a) The following actions are prohibited: any acquisition, importation, transfer, or installation of any bulk- power system electric equipment (transaction) by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, where the transaction involves any property in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest (including through an interest in a contract for the provision of the equipment), where the transaction was initiated after the date of this order, and where the Secretary of Energy (Secretary), in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence, and, as appropriate, the heads of other executive departments and agencies (agencies), has determined that:

(i) the transaction involves bulk-power system electric equipment designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied, by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary; and

(ii) the transaction:

(A) poses an undue risk of sabotage to or subversion of the design, integrity, manufacturing, production, distribution, installation, operation, or maintenance of the bulk-power system in the United States;

(B) poses an undue risk of catastrophic effects on the security or resiliency of United States critical infrastructure or the economy of the United States; or

(C) otherwise poses an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons.

January 16, 2021

Secretary of Energy Signs Order to Mitigate Security Risks to the Nation's Electric Grid

The “Prohibition Order Securing Critical Defense Facilities” prohibits utilities that supply CDFs at a service voltage of 69kV or above from acquiring, importing, transferring, or installing BPS electric equipment, and is specific to select equipment manufactured or supplied by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of the People’s Republic of China. The order applies from the point of electrical interconnection with the CDF up to and including the next “upstream” transmission substation. Utilities subject to this order will be notified no later than 5 days from the issuance of the order.

January 20, 2021 (Biden E.O. Suspends Trump E.O. 13920)

Subpoint C notes that “Executive Order 13920 of May 1, 2020 (Securing the United States Bulk-Power System), is hereby suspended for 90 days.”

February 4, 2021

Biden Rescinds Trump Order Banning Chinese Involvement in the U.S. Power Grid

China has become the world’s leading supplier of transformers, which presents significant challenges to U.S. grid security. In his May 1, 2020 order, President Trump stated that the United States should no longer purchase transformers and other electric grid equipment manufactured in China. He signaled that it is important to end relationships that U.S. utilities have directly with Chinese businesses and multi-national companies manufacturing transformers in China, which are later plugged into the electric grid in the United States. Chinese power equipment can be embedded with software and hardware that can be remotely accessed, enhancing China’s ability to commit cyberattacks. Because power transformers are huge and weigh between 100 and 400 tons, it is not easy to identify embedded software or hardware. There is also a potential hardware risk since counterfeit items can be easily put into large power transformers.