Woodland substations hit before North Carolina, Tacoma as nation looks to increase security

Jun 05, 2023

A forklift located near the Robinson Road substation in Woodland was damaged on Nov. 17, according to the machine’s owner Brian Kemp. Police say the Woodland substation was also damaged on Nov. 17, and another substation in the city was vandalized the next day.

WOODLAND — Two mid-November substations attacks in Woodland occurred weeks before more publicized attacks in North Carolina and Tacoma.

Intentional attacks in December in North Carolina and Tacoma resulted in lost power for thousands and prompted a security review of the nation's electricity transmission network. Law enforcement have not said if attacks in different locations are related.

Police in Washington arrested two men in January in connection to a series of Christmas Day attacks on power stations in the Tacoma area.

According to Sgt. James Keller of the Woodland Police Department, a Cowlitz County Public Utility District substation on Robinson Road was broken into and damaged on Nov. 17 and caused a power outage that lasted several hours. The next day, the West Woodland Substation on Pekin Road was hit, Keller said.

Woodland police alerted the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the incidents. The Cowlitz County PUD declined to provide details of the outages because they are being investigated.

Jeff Zimmerman, 53, owner of the auto repair shop Trailer Sales, has property next to the Robinson Road substation, which is located near Woodland High School and the Dike Access Road Walmart. He said his construction equipment was damaged the same day as the Nov. 17 attack.

Contractor Brian Kemp, 42, was doing work on Zimmerman's property and told The Daily News someone on Nov. 17 tried to hot wire his forklift and damaged it in the process. Kemp said he alerted the FBI about the vandalism.

Pacific Northwest substation attacks in November and December.

On Thanksgiving Day, a Bonneville Power Administration electrical substation in Clackamas, Oregon, was attacked in what BPA Vice President of Field Service John Lahti called a deliberate assault on the station to "damage equipment and cause a power outage."

According to the FBI, two substations in Moore County, North Carolina were damaged by gunfire on the night of Dec. 3 at two locations 10 minutes apart and left 45,000 without power for four days.

On Christmas Day four substations were attacked in the Tacoma area, and an estimated $3 million of damage knocked out power for more than 15,000 people.

According to an affidavit, Puyallup residents Matthew Greenwood, 32, and Jeremy Crahan, 40, were arrested Dec. 31 for allegedly sabotaging the four Puget Sound Energy and Tacoma Power substations. Greenwood told federal authorities that their motivation was to cut the substations' power to burglarize local businesses that would be left in the dark.

Greenwood and Crahan are both charged with one count of conspiracy to damage energy facilities, and Greenwood is also charged with an unregistered firearm after the FBI found unregistered guns underneath his mattress. If found guilty, they could serve years in a federal prison.

A fence located near the Robinson Road substation in Woodland was damaged on Nov. 17, according to Brian Kemp who said he had equipment on the property. Police say the Woodland substation was also damaged on Nov. 17, and another substation in the city was vandalized the next day.

The Daily News asked the FBI's Seattle office if there were any connections between the Christmas Day attacks in Pierce County and the Woodland attacks. FBI spokesperson Steven Bernd said in an email that "while we cannot go into the incidents in Woodland, the two men arrested were arrested for their participation in all four attacks in Pierce County."

Substations convert high-voltage electricity to lower-voltage electricity for homes and businesses. They can be targets because they are often unmanned and in remote locations, officials say.

Professor Daniel Kirschen, 65, of the University of Washington's Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering said substations are also relatively easy targets because there are so many.

It was a Christmas present nobody wanted yet another attack on the power system in the U.S. "In this one, the suspects cut one of the locks on the fence area, made their way inside and caused damage to the substation, which ultimately knocked out power for a large amount of residents in the county," said Sgt. Darrien Moss Jr. with the Pierce County Sheriff's Dept.In Washington state, that attack and two others knocked out power to about 14,000 customers. "All three happened in the middle of the night on Christmas Day, causing power outages. Nothing was stolen from any of those facilities, so there's a good possibility they are related," Moss continued. SEE MORE: 3 Washington State Electric Substations VandalizedThe attacks, plus another Sunday night at a Puget Sound energy substation, are the latest in a rash of incidents. Politico reports 2022 had the highest number of attacks on the nation's power grid system in a decade, with more than 100 physical and cyber strikes through August. Recent months have seen damage to substations in Ohio, Oregon and North Carolina. Mark Christie, a commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, says the damage to substations reflect an escalation in assaults. "Transformers are out there in every city block and they're vulnerable to a drunk with a gun and attitude and we have a lot of incidents like that. That's not unusual," he said. "A transformer knocks out a block or two. A substation [affects] several tens of thousands of people."

"The grid is an impressive machine. It has enormous economic benefits and reliability benefits. What needs to happen is to improve the physical security of the substations to make attacks more difficult or less likely," said Kirschen.

Doug Johnson, the senior spokesperson for the BPA, said the company has 300 substations across the region, some of which are manned, and some aren't. He said they are enhancing security features in light of the Thanksgiving Day attack.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced Dec. 15 they are studying the physical security standards of the nation's electrical grid. The commission is an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas and oil.

The Department of Energy's Office of Cybersecurity reports the number of substation disturbances in Washington state has increased from 2021 to 2022.

Eleven substation were hit in Washington state through August 2022. Nine disruptions occurred before the Woodland attacks and seven of those were described as "intentional human action;" two were cyber-attacks; and one was listed as "suspicious activity."

The department reports three electrical substations were vandalized in Washington state in 2021, and another was a possible physical threat and listed under "suspicious activity."

Kirschen advised telling authorities about questionable events.

"If you see something, say something," he said. "If you see suspicious activity report it."

Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email.

Reporter

Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to The Daily News.