The Growing Frequency of Physical Attacks

For years, cybersecurity has dominated the conversation surrounding threats to the power grid. However, a new reality is emerging. According to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), physical security breaches are on the rise. The 2025 E-ISAC end-of-year report documented over 3,500 incidents, a significant jump from the 2,800 reported in 2023. While not every breach results in disruption, approximately 3% do, impacting electricity delivery to homes and businesses.

This isn’t solely a North American problem. Danielle Russo, executive director of the Center for Grid Security at Securing America’s Future Energy, emphasizes that attacks are occurring globally. “They’re not uniquely a U.S. thing,” she states. Recent events in Germany, including arson attacks on critical infrastructure in Berlin that left tens of thousands without power, underscore this point. German authorities are investigating potential links to domestic extremism and even foreign interference.

Recent Attacks in the United States

The United States has witnessed a series of alarming incidents. In December 2025, an engineer in California received a 10-year prison sentence for bombing electrical transformers. A Tennessee man was arrested for attempting to use a drone armed with explosives to attack a substation. And in 2023, authorities thwarted a plot by individuals with extremist ideologies to attack multiple substations around Baltimore. These cases, coupled with a tenfold increase in reported physical attacks over the past decade, paint a concerning picture.

Michael Coe, vice president of physical and cyber security programs at the American Public Power Association, notes that the increase in reported incidents is a clear indicator of a growing threat. “Since [E-ISAC] started publishing data back in 2016, we’ve seen a large and consistent increase in the number of reported physical security incidents per year,” he explains.

The Drone Threat: A New Dimension of Vulnerability

The GridEx exercise specifically focused on the threat posed by drones, a rapidly evolving challenge for grid operators. The ease of access and potential for payload delivery make drones an attractive tool for malicious actors. “The question we get all the time is, how do you tell if it’s a bad actor, or if it’s a 12-year-old kid that got the drone for their birthday?” asks Erika Willis, program manager for the substations team at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

Innovative Security Technologies

Researchers are developing advanced technologies to counter the drone threat. Sensor fusion, combining radar and camera systems, can track drones even when obscured from view. EPRI is also exploring the use of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance perimeter security. AI-powered systems can analyze images and detect anomalies, such as breaches in fencing or unusual activity around substations, far more efficiently than human observers.

Prisma Photonics, an Israeli-based software company, is deploying fiber sensing technology across thousands of miles of transmission infrastructure. This system uses existing fiber optic cables to detect disturbances, identifying potential threats like vehicles approaching substations or even attempts to cut cables. The AI-powered system learns from each event, improving its ability to accurately classify and respond to future incidents. “If we identify an event that we don’t have a classification for, and we get a feedback from a customer saying, ‘oh, this was a car crash,’ then we can classify that in the model to say this is actually what happened,” explains Tiffany Menhorn, Prisma Photonics’ vice president of North America.

Do you believe current security measures are sufficient to protect the power grid from increasingly sophisticated attacks? What role should government regulation play in bolstering grid security?

Frequently Asked Questions About Power Grid Security