Between 2023 and 2024, utility companies and electric grids in the United States faced a surge in physical security threats. In 2023, power providers reported 185 physical attacks or threats against critical grid infrastructure, surpassing the previous record set in 2022.
How visability, from Activu, Enhances Utility Security
Activu helps energy companies safeguard power for 260 million U.S. customers and monitor over 126,000 miles of transmission lines. Fully NERC/CIP compliant and ISO 27001 certified, Activu’s software is the only video wall, control room collaboration platform approved for use in the U.S. government’s top security facilities.
Notable Recent Utility Security Incidents
Christmas Day 2022
Vandals attacked four substations in Pierce County, Washington, cutting power to 17,000 customers. Two individuals were later charged.1
February 2023
A neo-Nazi leader conspired to bomb a power station in Baltimore, intending to cause widespread blackouts and damage.2
December 2022 – Early 2023
In Moore County, North Carolina, targeted shooting at two Duke Energy substations left 45,000 customers without power and resulted in one death.
November 2024
A 24-years old Tennessee resident linked to a white supremacist group planned to attack a Nashville power substation using an explosives-equipped drone.3
Regulatory and Security Initiatives
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) mandates security plans for critical grid infrastructure. In response to escalating threats, NERC launched a standards development project in April 2023 to clarify risk assessment expectations for bulk power system facilities. Additionally, in November 2023, NERC conducted GridEx VII, a security simulation that identified key areas for improvement:
Alternative communication technologies for operators.
Enhance industry-government coordination.
Strengthen response protocols.
Strategies to manage prolonged energy market disruptions.
In May 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final rule allowing utilities to recover cybersecurity enhancement costs, indirectly benefiting physical security by improving overall grid resilience. These initiatives underscore the need for stronger security strategies, but challenges remain, including cost and feasibility constraints on widespread implementation of advanced security measures like ballistic walls and round the clock substation security.
visability, from Activu – The Future of Grid Security
Visability enhances real-time security operations by:
Instantly notifying key personnel—control room operators, mobile teams, executives, and external agencies like law enforcement—when an incident occurs.
Automatically assembling a dynamic, real-time dashboard that consolidates key applications, surveillance feeds, and monitoring tools.
Ensuring synchronized, immediate decision-making across control room video walls, conference room displays, and remote locations via laptops or mobile devices
visability integrates traditional and AI-driven security solutions seamlessly, including:
AI gun detection
Cameras and VMS from multiple brands
License plate recognition, gunfire locator, video surveillance
Plus, leading network and cybersecurity tools like these, and more.
Visability integrates all your apps into a single platform, eliminating the need to juggle multiple tools or search for critical data during an incident. Alerts are instantly shared with relevant team members and executive leadership, accompanied by a dynamic, real-time dashboard that consolidates key apps, cameras, and monitoring tools. This ensures decision makers receive immediate, actionable insights, keeping your team synchronized and ready to respond from the very first moment of a crisis—whether on a control room video wall, conference room display wall, or remotely out in the field, via laptop, or a mobile phone.
Security Solutions for Today’s Threat Landscape
Furthermore, visability stands as the only NERC/CIP-compliant video wall and collaboration platform that has also earned approval for use in the U.S. government’s highest-security facilities. Designed to meet the most rigorous cybersecurity and operational standards, visability provides unmatched reliability for critical infrastructure protection. As a proud U.S. company, Activu upholds the highest standards of security and compliance, reinforced by our ISO 27001 certification, ensuring robust data protection and risk management.
Protect Your Grid – Act Now
Don’t leave your infrastructure vulnerable to imminent threats. Strengthen your security through visability, from Activu. Contact us today or request a demo.
Utility Case Studies
- Future-Proofing Power: Transforming MTE’s Control Room for Unparalleled Efficiency
The largest electric cooperative in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) region, faced challenges with antiquated technology. - DTE Energy: Storm Resilience Revolutionizes a Utility Control Center
Challenge It all started with an unprecedented windstorm in March of 2017. Windspeeds peaked at 68 miles per hour throughout… Read more: DTE Energy: Storm Resilience Revolutionizes a Utility Control Center - Integrated Operations Center: Flexibility & Security Across Critical Operations
A large Northwestern U.S. power utility is leading the nation in innovation, and a seamless operating picture, through a unified approach across functions through vis/ability. - EnXchange: Virtual Power Plants, Digital Twins, and a More Connected World
Users of enx vis/ability collect a more detailed view of their operations than ever before, gain exclusive analytics, and easily share insights with teams in the control room, another facility, or in virtual command centers, accessible anywhere. - PGE’s Video Wall & Control Room Add Resilience & Collaboration
The Integrated Operations Center is part of the nerve center of PGE’s smart grid. At the IOC, we centralize PGE’s… Read more: PGE’s Video Wall & Control Room Add Resilience & Collaboration - How an Award-Winning Municipal Utility Enhances Power Restoration Efforts
Challenge Despite being recognized repeatedly as a Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3®), Marietta Power wasn’t content to rest on its… Read more: How an Award-Winning Municipal Utility Enhances Power Restoration Efforts - Keeping Alabama Warm
Challenge When Alagasco began planning their new operations center, they had two goals: create an improved job environment where employees… Read more: Keeping Alabama Warm - Aiding one the largest co-ops in the U.S. to reliably supply power
Activu system provided Cobb EMC with capabilities beyond their expectations. - Keeping the lights on for 19.8 million customers
An ISO chose Activu’s software-based system to help them monitor critical operations and improve incident response and decision making.
- Unsealed Warrant Provides Closer Look at NC Power Grid Attack Investigation, Feb 2024 ↩︎
- Bomb-plot trial of neo-Nazi leader pulls back veil on US extremist networks | Far right (US) | The Guardian, Feb 2023 ↩︎
- Man arrested after federal officials say he sought to destroy Nashville power site | AP News ↩︎