3 Substations Vandalized in Washington, Knocking Out Power For 14,000

By Jaslin On Dec 26, 2022

According to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, the first substation to be targeted was situated near Spanaway, Washington, and belonged to Tacoma Public Utilities. The incident took place at approximately 5:30 a.m. local time. According to the authorities, nothing was stolen; nonetheless, equipment was vandalized, which led to power interruptions in the region.

According to the authorities, a second TPU substation located close by was also vandalized. According to the authorities, at some point in the early morning hours, vandals also damaged a substation that belonged to Puget Sound Energy.

The power went off at approximately 2:30 in the morning local time. The police were alerted at approximately 11:30 in the morning, and when they arrived on the spot, they discovered “the gated area had been broken into and the equipment vandalized,” which was also the case with the other two substations.

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There have been no arrests made, and it is currently unknown whether or not all three substations were vandalized by the same person or people, or whether or not the incidents are connected in any way. Tacoma Public Utilities said that approximately 900 of the 7,300 customers who had lost power due to the outage were still without electricity as of 5:30 p.m. local time.

The three instances occurred less than a month after someone opened fire on a substation in North Carolina, which caused the power to be cut off to approximately 45,000 residents in the state. As a result of the “planned” attack, concerns have been expressed over the susceptibility of the electrical grid in the United States to sabotage, as many substations are safeguarded by little more than chainlink fences.