Distributed Generation to Counter Grid Vulnerability

摘要

In this paper I examine how the United States can best defend against the interruption of critical electrical energy by hostile acts, identify and examine some of the vulnerabilities to our nation's power generation and distribution capabilities, outline several terrorist designs for disruption to it and the resulting economic impact, and provide a possible solution with the adoption of a concept of distnbuted generation.' Further, I demonstrate a national recognition of those vulnerabilities and explain who has been assigned the responsibility to protect these capabilities. By providing examples of terrorist targets and highlighting several vulnerabilities, I elaborate on the benefits of distributing our energy generation resources and discuss the technologies and their availability, risks, and benefits. Lastly, a discussion concerning ways the government can contribute to the distributed energy picture along with several of the means to best implement and expedite this strategy is provided. While the national strategy is to protect from attacks against our energy infrastructure, there needs to be an effort of dispersing generation capabilities in order to protect against the effects of power generation disruption.