US unprepared for 'catastrophic' power outage, Presidential advisory report finds in 2018, focuses on providing incentives for investment

Securing the nation's power system will require billions in investment, begging the question: Who pays?

This 2018 article from Utility Dive cites a draft report from the President's National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) called “Surviving a Catastrophic Power Outage.” In it, the Council examines the US’ ability to respond to and recover from an outage “of a magnitude beyond modern experience, exceeding prior events in severity, scale, duration, and consequence.

The report concludes that “existing national plans, response resources, and coordination strategies would be outmatched by a catastrophic power outage.”

The suggests a “portfolio of incentives” at the Federal and state level are needed to quickly have an impact that would take into account different ownership structures in the power sector (e.g., investor- cooperative- and publicly- owned utilities). These include cost recovery, return-on-equity investments, and liability protection.

The report raises the question of who should pay for these incentives: “The power grid is a prime target for attack by nation states, and it is not fair for ratepayers to bear the full burden for this national security function.”

You can find a PDF of the full report dated December 2018 here. This report focuses on risks to the electric grid.

You can find a more recent 22-page draft report dated 12/2019 here.