- The U.S. could suffer a nationwide blackout if just nine of the country's 55,000 electric-transmission substations were knocked out on a particularly hot day, the WSJ reports, citing a study from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
- The U.S. could suffer darkness "for weeks, if not months," the WSJ writes.
- Utilities aren't required to protect vital substations unless they're located at nuclear facilities, although regulators are considering increasing security standards.
- Meanwhile, nearly all utilities that took part in a drill last year to assess their ability to cope with online and physical attacks admitted they weren't prepared enough, a report from the North American Electric Reliability Corp shows. Over 2,000 participants from the U.S., Canada and Mexico were involved in the exercise.
- ETFs: XLU, IDU, VPU, NLR, GRID, NUCL, RYU, PUI, UPW, FXU, SDP, FUTY, AMPS, PSCU, UTLT