US Puts Power Grid Operators On Highest Security Alert

- U.S. power-grid assets are once again operating under the highest level of security alert after U.S. and allied military forces struck Afghanistan Sunday, an industry group said Monday.

The Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation advised Sunday that electricity system coordinators should implement their highest-level security plans as a safeguard against possible retaliation for the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, said Ellen Vancko, spokeswoman for the Princeton, N.J.-based North American Electric Reliability Council.

NERC is the voluntary industry group that coordinates power-grid reliability rules and procedures.

Power-grid operators stepped down from operating at the highest security-alert level one day after the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

U.S. nuclear power facilities have remained on notice to operate at the highest level of security alert since Sept. 11.

NERC anticipated resuming the highest-level alert once U.S. military retaliation began.

On Sunday, NERC advised transmission facility coordinators to resume operating at the highest security level after being briefed by DOE and the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center.

"When they go to full alert, they notify us we should do the same," said NERC's Vancko, who declined to detail what procedures are implemented under the stage-three security alert level.

Whether or not the security alert will be stepped down again depends on the FBI and DOE, Vancko said, noting that NERC conducts daily security coordinator calls with the federal agencies.

"We operate at the pleasure of NIPC on this issue," she said of the FBI's infrastructure-protection center.