Electric sector assets were, for the most part, built a long time ago. A couple of facts to illustrate:
according to T&D World, the “average age of installed large transformers in the US is about 40 years”
in an excellent primer on how the US power grid works, the Council on Foreign Relations says that the average age of power plants is over thirty years old
The past forty years have seen huge changes in technology, climate, and society. The world is hotter, weather is more violent, and the people on the angry fringes of society are better organized and informed. Information that used to be the realm of a few is now available almost instantly. Misinformation and disinformation are even faster.
So what does this mean? This link will take you to an impact/frequency chart. Recent changes to climate and technology has forced many of the events that were typically in the High Impact / Low Frequency (HILF) quadrant a lot closer to the High Impact / Hi Frequency quadrant (HIHF). Events are not only happening more often, they’re getting more dangerous too.
So what does this mean to critical infrastructure owners and operators? Organizations that expect high impact events to only happen rarely are usually structured and funded with that in mind, and managing these risks fall to a support department, such as security, safety, or contingency planning. HIHF events, as they are both dangerous and much more common, are usually managed by Operation, where more funding, manpower and oversight is available.
The bottom line is that infrastructure owners and operators may need to reconsider funding, oversight, and manpower resources to provide a level of protection in keeping with the evolving threats to their assets.