Four substations in the Tacoma, Washington area were attacked on Sunday, affecting thousands of customers, authorities said.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department described the early morning attacks on two Tacoma Public Utilities substations and a Puget Sound Energy facility as vandalism, although those responsible were not identified.
“It is unknown whether there are any motives or whether it was a coordinated attack on the power systems,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.
The authority estimated that the number of affected houses and businesses was 14,000 at a time on Sunday when three substations were affected.
The sheriff’s department described a fourth incident at another Puget Sound Energy substation on Sunday around 7:21 p.m.
“The suspects gained access to the fenced area and destroyed the equipment that caused the fire,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “There are currently no suspects in custody.”
The fourth incident at a South Pierce County substation on Christmas Day resulted in heightened safety measures.
“All county law enforcement agencies have been notified of the incidents and will be monitoring substations in their region,” the statement said.
Most affected houses have been restored to electricity, the sheriff’s department said.
Puget Sound Energy confirmed in a statement Monday that two of its substations were attacked.
“We are coordinating with the authorities about alleged acts of vandalism at two of our substations. Both incidents are being investigated and no further details are available. PSE has extensive measures in place to monitor, protect and minimize risk to our equipment and infrastructure,” the statement said.
Puget Sound Energy said on its website on Sunday that more than 1,200 customers were without power — with the vast majority being reconnected — but it wasn’t clear whether this was related to the attack.
Tacoma Public Utilities said that more than 7,000 of its customers in the Graham and Elk Plain communities were without power on Sunday and that work continued on the restoration.
It appears that power has been restored to many of these TPU customers. National blackout tracker Poweroutage.us reported late Sunday afternoon that fewer than 5,000 customers were groping in the dark across the state.
In a statement, TPU stated: “Two of our substations were deliberately targeted by physical attacks.”
According to the sheriff, in each of these attacks, the first of which was reported at 2:39 a.m., one or more people broke into facilities and destroyed equipment.
According to TPU, federal law enforcement agencies alerted the company to the possibility of attacks this month and recommended a security assessment. It would not say what action, if any, it has taken.
same time, Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW Public Radio from Seattle reported that separate attacks had taken place in mid-November on six substations by Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Cowlitz County Public Utility District, and Puget Sound Energy in Washington and Oregon. According to the outlets, the incidents were violations of utility property.
On December 3, vandals attacked two Duke Energy substations in Moore County, North Carolina, leaving 45,000 customers in the dark for more than three days, officials said. People with guns opened fire and in one case broke into a facility, they said, and were still on duty almost a month later.
When power was restored to the last North Carolina customers on Dec. 7, someone opened fire near a Duke Energy hydroelectric plant in Ridgeway, South Carolina, about 130 miles south of Moore County. Federal investigators compared ballistic evidence for both attacks to determine whether they were connected.
Investigators investigating the attacks in North Carolina examined online conspiracy theories to see if they played a role, said two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter this month.
One prevailing theory was that as a result of the cancellations, a drag performance, “Downtown Divas,” at the Sunrise Theatre in Southern Pines, North Carolina, should be discontinued. In the days leading up to Saturday night’s event, which lasted in the dark before it ended early, anti-LGBTQ demonstrators targeted the site.
Energy infrastructure has long been on the attack wish list of white supremacists and other right-wing extremists seeking American “destabilization,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino, in February.
Earlier this year, three men pleaded guilty in connection with a plot to cut off the power grid, cause unrest and economic uncertainty, and ultimately trigger a race war, federal prosecutors said at the time.