On May 1, U.S. President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to protect the “U.S. bulk-power system”—high-voltage transmission lines, generators delivering energy to large consumption centers, and other parts of the power infrastructure —from attacks by malicious parties, including nation-state actors. While the actions detailed in this order go a long way toward addressing a critical national vulnerability, it still leaves a portion of our power infrastructure exposed, namely local power distribution systems that deliver energy to end consumers. In an July17 editorial published in IEEE Spectrum, Dr. Yury Dvorkin, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NYU Tandon, points out this gap in what the order protects. “This portion of the grid, which may be thought of as the ‘last mile’ to millions of end users, delivers electricity to countless systems, appliances, and devices—including anything you might plug into a standard 110-volt outlet,” he writes. Yet, because these distribution networks are regulated locally, “they fly under the radar of the new executive order.”  Click here to read the full text of Dvorkin’s editorial.

EnergyCentral.com also ran a story and a link to the editorial.