An electrical substation in North Carolina was damaged by gunfire early Tuesday in the third known substation shooting in the state since. early december.
Power supply company EnergyUnited said crews responded when they received an alarm at a substation in Thomasville, southwest of Greensboro, where they discovered the substation’s transformer had been attacked by a “clear gunfire”. in a statement.
The company said no customers lost power.
The Randolph County Sheriff’s Office said law enforcement investigators arrived at the scene and gathered evidence and believe the shooting occurred around 3 a.m.
An investigation is underway.
The FBI and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation have been notified and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is conducting its own investigation. the sheriff’s office said.
In early December, two substations in neighboring Moore County were damaged by gunfire on the same night, leaving tens of thousands of residents without power for days.
No arrests have been announced in connection with that shooting. The FBI is still look for information.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said at that time that the Moore County attack “raises a new level of threat” and said state and federal officials will work to “strengthen our infrastructure as needed and work to prevent it.” future damage.”
Energy security experts say it is difficult to prevent attacks aimed at power cuts, especially in rural areas.
“The network is huge,” said Errol Southers, a professor of homeland and national security at the University of Southern California. talk to NPR last month. “It has about 6,400 power plants around the country, about 55,000 substations and more than 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines served by 3,000 companies. … Monitoring and protection is extremely difficult. And many of these places were very remote, and so the officers had to go there. And when they got there, the attackers were gone.”
Four substations in Washington state damaged by attack on Christmas Day. From mid-November to December 8, at least six more attacks occurred on substations in Oregon and Washington.
