A DNI National Intelligence Estimate states: “Deployment of utility-scale solar and wind technologies in remote areas is likely to require ultra-high-voltage transmission lines to move the power to cities. China is the world’s leading supplier of advanced grid components for ultrahigh-voltage systems, such as transformers, circuit breakers, and inverters, which we assess creates cyber vulnerability risks.” The threat to the grid (not just in the US) from Chinese equipment with hardware backdoors should not be minimized. Moreover, there has no clear understanding of what compromised transformers would mean to grid operation. Exacerbating this issue is that Chinese transformers are cheaper than North American-made transformers and there are no industry requirements to monitor the manufacturing of this Chinese equipment. The hardware backdoors could be preparing the way for Coercive Information Operations.
DNI identifies Chinese transformers as cyber vulnerable risks yet DOE and industry ignore the threat
