The Trump administration issued a new ban on the use of certain electrical system equipment imported from China for military installations to reduce the risk posed by China-linked entities to the U.S. national bulk power system (bulk-power system).
The ban prohibits agencies that provide electrical service of 69 kilovolts or more to critical defense facilities from procuring, importing, transferring or installing bulk-power system equipment from China, the U.S. Department of Energy said in a statement released Thursday.
It is not clear which facilities are considered critical defense facilities.
High-capacity power systems include components used at substations, control rooms or generating stations, including nuclear reactors, capacitor banks, converters, transformers, large and standby generators and other equipment.
Energy Secretary Brouillette (Dan Brouillette) said in a statement: “The bulk power system is the backbone of the nation’s energy infrastructure and is critical to our national security, the U.S. economy and our way of life. There is an immediate and urgent need to safeguard the bulk power system from attack and exploitation by foreign adversaries.”
The ban will take effect Jan. 16, before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The ban is based on an executive order signed by President Trump in May of this year. That executive order said the president found that hostile countries overseas are creating and exploiting a growing number of vulnerabilities in the U.S. bulk power system. Attacks on the U.S. electric system include malicious cyberattacks. If the attack is successful, the U.S. economy and the health and safety of the people will suffer a huge threat, the United States will be able to protect their own and allied countries will also be reduced.
The executive order says that the unrestricted use of foreign-made electrical equipment in the U.S. bulk power system would pose a special and significant threat to U.S. national security, the national economy and foreign policy.
Both members of Congress and the Trump administration have been concerned in recent years about the vulnerability of the electric power network to foreign interference. Former U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats warned and said in a report last year that countries such as China and Russia are using cyber technology to monitor U.S. infrastructure and have the ability to launch cyber attacks on power grids and natural gas pipelines.
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