By Kathy Larsen and Rich Heidorn Jr.

WASHINGTON — Tony Clark, the junior member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, rarely says much at the commission’s monthly meetings. On Thursday, however, he became the latest of his colleagues to criticize former Chairman Jon Wellinghoff’s crusade to bring attention to physical threats to the grid.

Clark made a pointed reference to Wellinghoff in praising acting Chair Cheryl LaFleur for leading the commission to issue a rule March 7 directing the North American Electric Reliability Corp. to develop measures to protect the grid from physical threats.

The order was prompted by concerns raised by the April 2013 attack on Pacific Gas and Electric’s Metcalf substation.

“As all of you who work with FERC know, the chairman at any given time shoulders the responsibility of directing the drafting of orders and deciding what will be circulated to his or her colleagues for approval,” Clark said in a prepared statement. “In all honesty, something along these lines could have and perhaps should have been done months, if not several years ago …”

Wellinghoff, who was chairman from 2009 until December, has been widely quoted in news accounts since leaving the commission in a campaign to raise awareness of the threat of sabotage. He has called the Metcalf attack “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid” to date.

Wellinghoff, now a partner at law firm Stoel Rives LLP in San Francisco, did not respond to a request for comment last week.

Norris, Moeller Criticism

At the commission’s February meeting, Commissioners John Norris and Philip Moeller warned that Wellinghoff’s public statements, which were featured in articles in The Wall Street Journal and several California newspapers in February, could result in copycat attacks. Norris also warned against overreacting to the threats, saying it could lead to wasteful spending. (See FERC, NERC: Don’t Overreact to Sabotage Threat.)

LaFleur did not criticize Wellinghoff’s actions but said she agreed with her colleagues that “the resilience of the grid needs to be viewed broadly.”

Critical Substations

The Journal’s Feb. 5 article also reported Wellinghoff saying that a FERC analysis found that “if a surprisingly small number of U.S. substations were knocked out at once, that could destabilize the system enough to cause a blackout that could encompass most of the U.S.”

On March 13, the Journal published a second article reporting details from a confidential FERC analysis — apparently the same one Wellinghoff had referred to in February — that concluded the country’s entire grid could be shut down for weeks or months if only nine substations were sabotaged.

The newspaper did not identify the locations of those substations or its source for the study.

The article said that FERC had conducted power flow analyses on the most critical 30 substations among 55,000 substations nationwide. It reportedly concluded that disabling just nine substations — four in the East, three in the West and two in Texas — could send the nation into darkness.

The Journal said it had reviewed a memo prepared by Leonard Tao, FERC’s director of external affairs, that summarized the study’s findings: “Destroy nine interconnection substations and a transformer manufacturer and the entire United States grid would be down for at least 18 months, probably longer,” said the memo.

Wellinghoff also commented for the March 13 article. “There are probably less than 100 critical high voltage substations on our grid in this country that need to be protected from a physical attack,” the Journal quoted Wellinghoff. “It is neither a monumental task, nor is it an inordinate sum of money that would be required to do so.”

Leak of Report Condemned

That article drew harsh condemnation. “Whoever is the source of this leak — and it appears to be someone with a great deal of access to highly sensitive, narrowly distributed FERC documents — is clearly putting our nation at risk,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), said in a statement. “If his or her actions are not illegal, they should be.”

LaFleur, in a statement the same day, acknowledged the newspaper had not identified the critical substations but condemned it for publishing “other sensitive information.”

There may be value in discussing steps to keep the grid safe, she said, but “the publication of sensitive material about the grid crosses the line from transparency to irresponsibility, and gives those who would do us harm a roadmap to achieve malicious designs.”

NERC issued a statement saying “Articles like the one in The Wall Street Journal today do nothing to improve security, rather they jeopardize it.”

Clark last week did not criticize the Journal but did “find fault with those people who may possess sensitive or confidential information, and then choose to release it.”

Costly Investments

At least two gunmen were believed to be involved in the attack on PG&E’s Metcalf 500/230 kV substation near San Jose. The shooting caused more than $15 million in damage, idling the substation for nearly a month, but no power interruptions. (See Substation Saboteurs ‘No Amateurs’.)

FERC told NERC March 7 to develop standards within 90 days that require transmission operators to conduct risk assessments to determine what facilities could have a critical impact on grid operations if damaged by saboteurs. The standards will also require operators to evaluate their vulnerabilities and implement security plans to protect the critical equipment. (See FERC Orders Rules on Grid’s Physical Security.)

PG&E said last month it plans to install opaque walls, advanced camera systems, enhanced lighting and additional alarms at multiple substations as a result of the attack. Although it did not place a cost estimate on the improvements, it said it would likely seek a rate increase to fund them.

Dominion Resources Inc. said last month it plans to spend $300 million to $500 million over the next decade to increase security of its facilities. It would include two levels of perimeter security featuring “anti-climb” fences and key-card access systems for substation yards.

Earlier this month, a TV station in Richmond, Va., reported that state troopers had begun guarding two Dominion substations in Dinwiddie and Hanover counties. Dominion said there have been no threats to any of the company’s facilities.