FBI investigating shooting at another North Carolina electrical substation

    Jan. 23, 2023

    By Mary Ramsey

    Source The Charlotte Observer

    bigstock-Modern-Powerful-Transformer-Su-467455835
    Example of a modern transformer substation with many connected high-voltage wires and cables, electrical equipment maintains a stable energy voltage.
    Example of a modern transformer substation with many connected high-voltage wires and cables, electrical equipment maintains a stable energy voltage.

    The FBI is asking for the public’s help to find a suspect in a shooting of an electrical substation in Randolph County, N.C. in mid-January, a month after a shooting in Moore County left tens of thousands without power for days.

    “In the early morning hours of January 17,” the FBI said, “unknown suspect(s) fired multiple shots at” the Pleasant Hill Substation in Thomasville. At the time, the company that owns the substation, EnergyUnited Electric Membership Corporation, said in a statement “crews were dispatched to assess the situation and discovered damage to the substation transformer from an apparent gunshot.”

    The shooting didn’t cause any power outages, the company said. WSOC, The Charlotte Observer’s news partner, reported the shooting left the substation offline for a day and caused “hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage.”

    The location is a little more than one hour’s drive northeast of Charlotte, close to High Point.

    EnergyUnited is headquartered in Statesville and serves “more than 135,000 metering points” across 19 North Carolina counties, according to the company. The shooting at the Thomasville substation comes weeks after a Moore County substation was also shot at.

    That attack left nearly the entire county without power, and it took Duke Energy days to restore service to everyone affected.

    Anyone with information about the latest incident is asked to call the FBI’s Toll-Free Tipline at 1-800-225-5324 or the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office at 336-318-6685.

    You can also submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov or contact the FBI’s Charlotte field office.

    ©2023 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.     

    Jonathan Weiss/Dreamstime/TNS
    A Duke Energy electric substation. The attacks on two power substations in Moore County, North Carolina, last weekend came amid a multiyear effort by Duke Energy to “strengthen the grid” and reduce the number and severity of power outages.

    zhaojiankang / iStock / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images
    Despite playing a critical role in grid operations, process sensors often lack basic cybersecurity protections, creating hidden vulnerabilities that regulators are only beginning to address.
    Shinyfamily / iStock / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images
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