Building Resilience and Recoverability of Electric Grid Communications
the number of facilities ( and associated equipment counts ) to be protected . Based on this information , we are able to determine systemwide costs for national protection ( Winks , David , 2020 ).
The United States needs a mass-produced , easily deployed way to protect communication systems at 72,000 electric grid facilities across the country . As a general solution , we recommend communication equipment be placed in EMP-shielded cabinets . A key part of our proposed solution is backup power designed for six months of operation without refueling . Long-term backup power for electric grid communications will increase resilience to a wide variety of situations , not just EMP events .
The need for long-term backup power is supported by the electric grid experts . NIAC suggests in its report , “ Surviving a Catastrophic Power Outage ,” that utilities :
Develop or support a flexible , adaptable emergency communications system that all sectors can interoperably use , that is self-powered , and is reasonably protected against all hazards to support critical service restoration and connect infrastructure owners and operators , emergency responders , and government leaders . ( NIAC , 2018 )
The protected telecommunication subsystems examined in this study include those for control centers and substations — both common carrier circuits ( including copper conductor circuits ) and utility-owned circuits ( such as microwave radio and fiber optic ).
The proposed plan includes protecting between control centers and substations , including installation of long-duration backup power . The majority of these communications runs through microwave and fiber optic networks . Tables 1 and 2 below show examples of cost breakdowns for protection of communications equipment at control centers and substations .
Where copper conductor circuits are used — both by utilities and common carriers — we propose replacing these circuits with fiber optics . Installation of aerial fiber costs approximately $ 25,000 per mile . We estimate an average of 10 miles for each replaced copper conductor communications link .
Number of Facilities to Be Protected
Per the U . S . Department of Energy , approximately 3,200 electric utilities serve U . S . consumers ( U . S . Department of Energy , 2015 ). Large utilities commonly consist of a primary control center and one or more backup centers . Smaller utilities may share control centers or contract out the control function . Our study assumes a total of 3,000 control centers to be protected . Of these , we estimate that 2,400 use fiber optics and 600 use microwave radio .
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