Govt: Chinese malware could shut down US electric grid.

You've got a lot of fear-based propaganda like this being put out by the government-dependent renewable power industry and global warming alarmists, so I'd take it with a large grain on salt. These type articles have surfaced all over the place in recent times. While utilities, being known as slow to change, certainly have some preparation to do to make sure their grids are secure both physically and from online threats, some of these articles appear over the top. Think about it: China is the largest US creditor. Why would they want to sabotage our economy?

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Govt: Chinese malware could shut down US electric grid.

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Didn't they say this about the Russians a week or so ago? Not worried at all.

Also, why would the Chinese want to do this anyway? What would be their motivation? It's dumb that people actually worry about this stuff.

Fear mongering. We are the life source of their economy.

Correct, with attempts to destroy physical infrastructure in recent years due to terrorist or other motivations, I think our first priority at present is to secure our physical assets. No, we can't secure every mile of every transmission line, but we probably can take steps to beef up the security of the centralized operations.

Much like most things these days, modern power generation facilities can respond to commands via electronic means, many of which are accessible over the internet.

Hell, many of the ISOs control the generation of entire regions of the country from one or few central locations. Having that kind of flexibility aids reliability and cost. I don't think the threat of being hacked is a reason not to evolve into a more efficient industry, particularly when you consider the multiplicative impacts something as crucial as power costs could have on an entire economy. We just need to take steps to secure things better. That said, I think most of this stuff about China hacking us is a remote possibility at best.

The comment was primarily in reference to solar, not wind. The solar industry and its lobbyists are much more organized and have been much more vocal than the wind industry.

You may work for a power company where wind power is competitive in your region. At the country-wide level, however, solar/wind aren't economic relative to coal/gas without government subsidies, hence my comment about dependence thereon. I'm fully aware that's not the case in all areas of the country, but the comment still stands for the industry (especially solar) at large.

I've modeled the wind economics and agree with you that utility-grade wind is very close to being economic even in a state with as low of a wind rating as Louisiana. This is particularly so as we start extending the depreciable life out to 25 and 30 years.

I'm not sure but would also like to know.

Load up on guns/ammo

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If it was a legit concern, I doubt they would even tell us.

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This is how everyone should think before jumping to conclusions on many things the government says we should be worried about.