Vandalism at three power substations in western Washington early on Sunday cut power to about 14,000 utility customers, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said.
The attacks come as federal officials are warning that the US power grid needs better security to prevent domestic terrorism, and after a large outage in North Carolina earlier this month that took days to repair.
A US Department of Homeland Security report in January warned that domestic extremists have been developing “credible, specific plans” to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020.
Photo: AP
Tacoma Public Utilities reported vandalism at about 5:30am on Sunday at one substation, followed by vandalism at a second substation, the sheriff’s office said.
The outages affected about 7,300 customers in an area southeast of Tacoma. Just before noon, the utility had restored power to all but 2,700 customers whose power was estimated to be restored at about 6:30pm on Sunday.
Meanwhile, just before noon, Puget Sound Energy reported vandalism that occurred at about 2:30am on Sunday, which caused a power outage at one of its substations.
Nearly 7,700 customers lost power, which was restored by 5am, Puget Sound spokesperson Andrew Padula said.
The company is investigating along with authorities, but declined to comment further, Padula said.
In all three cases, the sheriff’s office said someone forced their way into a fenced area surrounding the substations and damaged equipment to cause a power outage.
Officials have not said how the substations were damaged. No suspects are in custody and officials do not know if it was a coordinated attack.
Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW radio in Seattle reported earlier this month that Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration, Cowlitz County Public Utility District and Puget Sound Energy confirmed six separate attacks on electrical substations in Washington and Oregon in the previous weeks.
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