Energy and Electric Utilities

On August 14, 2003, an electricity blackout affected 50 million people in the northeastern and mid-western United States and Canada. The largest blackout in North American history affected about one-third of the population of Canada and 40 million people in eight American states.Outage-related financial losses were estimated at six billion dollars.

This blackout, though not itself the result of a terrorist attack, underscores the vulnerability of the electric power industry to terrorist attacks. The vulnerabilities are enormous considering there are approximately 15,000 power generators in 10,000 power plants and thousands of miles of transmission lines in North America. This enormous power network has a value of over $800 billion.

Keeping the Electricity Flowing
The current vulnerability of the US electric grid offers an attractive target for a terrorist attack. Loss of electricity affects all critical infrastructures which rely on electricity to continue operating. The impact on the US of not having energy would be catastrophic.  

Energy assets must be protected from terrorist attack. Working with Israeli counterterrorism experts who have 50 years of experience protecting their nation’s energy sector, Shafran USA offers counterterrorism services to assist energy operators in their preparedness against terrorist attacks.

Shafran USA:

• Prepares a threat and vulnerability assessments of each facility

• Designs and installs systems to counter potential terrorist attacks

• Creates security screening barriers at entry points

• Trains staff on newly developed counterterrorism systems

• Conducts exercises to test counterterrorism security systems

Rely on the expertise of Shafran USA to create superior counterterrorism systems to protect this vital part of US infrastructure.