Power companies ready systems against terrorism

Safeguarding their physical infrastructure has 'become a major concern for energy suppliers and utilities after 9/11, especially those in and around metropolitan New York.

A Syracuse-based company, Defenshield, Inc., is providing security equipment that is helping these power companies and plants become more difficult for terrorists to penetrate.

Defenshield manufactures bulletproof glass that is used by law enforcement at security gates and other points of entry such as Hancock International Airport. The company recently supplied three large shields to Constellation Energy, operator of two upstate New York nuclearenergy sites (Nine Mile Point near Oswego and Ginna near Rochester).

The shield provides "highlevel guard protection" at the gates, explains Collins White, Defenshield's founder and president.

Constellation Energy spokesman Keith Cunningham declined

to discuss specific security improvements the company has

made or security measures it has taken at its Upstate plants.

However, he says the company has spent $5 million on

security equipment and guards at each nuclear plant since

September 2001.

"Nuclear plants in the U.S. were among the most heavily secured before 9/11, and certainly afterwards," says Cunningham, speaking from Constellation's headquarters in Baltimore. Constellation operates 35 power facilities nationwide, including solar, hydro, gas, oil, nuclear, and coalburning plants.

Nuclear energy supplies 28.1 percent of the electricity generated in New York, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute Web site (www.nei.org). There are six nuclear plants in the state (in addition to Ginna and the two Nine Mile Point plants, there is the FitzPatrick plant near Oswego and the two Indian Point reactors down in Westchester County). Nationally, nuclear power accounts for about 20 percent of electricity production.

Beefing up security

NEI says that after 9/11 security forces at nuclear plants were increased by one-third to approximately 8,000 officers at 64 sites nationwide. Overall, the nuclear industry has spent an additional $1.2 billion on security-related improvements since September 2001, according to NEI, a policy and lobbying group for the nuclear industry.

The additional security measures that nuclear plant operators have taken since 9/11 include: Extending and fortifying security perimeters, increasing patrols within security zones, installing new barriers to protect against car and truck bombs, installing surveillance equipment, and strengthening the coordination of security measures with local, state, and federal government agencies.

Similarly, Niagara Mohawk, a National Grid company based in Syracuse, keeps in close contact with 'the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and New York State's Office of Public Security when it comes to analyzing security threats.

Spokesman Alberto Bianchetti says the Office of Public Security conducts security "audits" on NiMo's physical and cyber-systems infrastructure, but he declined to say what the audits involve specifically.

He did say NiMo has installed additional equipment at many of its facilities to better address security issues. Addition-ally, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its state counterpart make the utility aware of any terrorist threats, and discuss how to protect against them.

After the 9/11 attacks, National Grid formed its own Security Advisory Committee composed of senior executives that now meets quarterly to review security strategies and make recommendations on security. Whenever the Department of Homeland Security changes its threat level (according to a five-color chart denoting risk), it informs National Grid and other power companies.

"They let us know if a change requires us to make a response or is a threat to our infrastructure," Bianchetti adds.

In addition, NiMo employees have participated in awareness programs, and are taught to report suspicious activity, such as loitering by individuals or vehicles.

Both Constellation Energy and Niagara Mohawk say they have had to absorb the cost of increased security themselves.

"We're a market energy provider," says Constellation's Cunningham. "We're not a utility and we have no control over rates. We generate electricity and sell electricity to our customers based on an agreed market price. (The cost of security) is overhead the company has to bear."

Bianchetti concurs that spending money on security precautions is "a cost of doing business for National Grid." He could not specify anamount the company has spent on security, improvements in the last three years.

NiMo has not applied for any rate increases since 9/11, he says, although there is no direct correlation between any rate increases and security "Mere are some federal-grant opportunities for critical facilities such as ours," Bianchetti says. "To qualify for those grants the facility must be

Copyright Central New York Business Journal Jan 14, 2005
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