August 27th, Houston (Argus) - US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that a national emergency has been declared due to foreign-supplied equipment entering the US power grid, authorizing the Energy Secretary to prevent related procurements and ordering the removal of installed hardware equipment.
This executive order prohibits the acquisition, importation, transfer, or installation of foreign-produced power transmission and transformation system equipment, provided that the supplier is associated with countries or enterprises subject to US arms embargoes or sanctions, or is deemed to pose a threat to US national security.
These restrictions apply to transactions after Wednesday and may require operators to identify, isolate, monitor, disconnect, replace or remove existing facilities while balancing the reliability and continuity of the power grid.
The affected equipment includes transformers, reactors, capacitors, high-voltage circuit breakers, power turbines, grid inverters, battery energy storage systems, relay protection devices, and industrial control systems, covering power transmission equipment with a rated voltage of 69 kilovolts or above.
The White House stated that there is a risk of digital backdoors being implanted in imported equipment and that the growth of data centers, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and the defense industry has deepened the US reliance on reliable electricity.
According to this executive order, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright must issue implementation details within 120 days and propose priority purchases of US-made infrastructure within 180 days.
