Physical Security of Electric Power Substations: Threats and Mitigation Measures

With the substantial increase in physical attacks such as gunfire, ballistic attack, vehicle knock down, terrorist attacks, etc. on electric power grid facilities worldwide and issuance by NERC CIP-014 and IEEE Std1402
^™
, the electric utility industry has boosted their investment towards strengthening physical security of substation to restrict future attacks. It is necessary to build physical attack-resilient substations. This paper studies various threat approaches and mitigation measures and security monitoring strategies in compliance with NERC and IEEE standards. It also presents layered perimeter security strategies for securing severely critical substations.