This one gadget could give China a back door into the US power grid

As the United States leans on solar power to meet soaring energy needs, its reliance on a Chinese-made component has created a mounting security threat, according to energy industry executives and congressional investigators who warn it can be weaponized to trigger blackouts.

Research shared exclusively with The Washington Post reveals how deeply dependent U.S. power companies are on Chinese inverters. These devices are used by large solar installations to help transform energy harnessed from the sun into a current that is compatible with the power grid.

More than 85 percent of the utilities surveyed confidentially by research group Strider Technologies are using inverter devices made by companies with ties to the Chinese government and military. Many cybersecurity experts warn that the devices are vulnerable to hacking that can set off cascading outages.

Chinese officials say the warnings are unfounded. The researchers, however, found evidence that engineers in China have been studying how vulnerabilities in the U.S. grid could be exploited. While such studies are common in the industry — scientists around the globe routinely share knowledge on power grid resilience — some of the Chinese efforts unnerve U.S. officials in the context of China’s broader initiatives to infiltrate infrastructure.

“There is plenty of evidence that would suggest this is a risk that needs to be addressed,” said Thomas Fanning, former chairman and CEO of Southern Company, one of the largest power companies in America. He now chairs the executive committee of the Alliance for Critical Infrastructure, a nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding the systems of America’s leading companies in the energy, finance and communications sectors.

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