The existing electric system was not designed to withstand multiple terrorist acts. One solution is to protect all parts of the system. This, however, is likely to be prohibitively expensive and may not even be successful. Another solution is to reduce the economic payoff from a terrorist attack, thus making it an unattractive target. Distributed PV is one technology that could be used to make the system a less attractive target because distributed PV could withstand a simultaneous attack on both the electric and the natural gas systems. A more secure electric grid will provide the federal government with revenue protection. The economic value of PV to the federal government depends upon which customers install the PV and how much PV is installed. Based on a 1 week power outage (and four subsequent weeks of GDP interruption), supplying all of the grid power with distributed PV would prevent a tax revenue loss of USD90 per kW, Supplying the 0.4 percent of the electrical energy that provides 20 percent of the GDP with PV or targeting customers that have a high GDP relative to electricity consumption, however, could prevent a tax revenue loss of more than USD6,000 per kW.
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