KYIV, Ukraine — Power was restored to over 800,000 residents in Kyiv on Saturday, a day after Russia launched major attacks on the Ukrainian power grid that caused blackouts across much of the country, and European leaders agreed to proceed toward using hundreds of billions of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s war effort.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said Saturday that “the main work to restore the power supply” had been completed, but that some localized outages were still affecting the Ukrainian capital following Friday’s “massive” Russian attacks.
Russian drone and missile strikes wounded at least 20 people in Kyiv, damaged residential buildings and triggered blackouts across swaths of Ukraine early Friday.
Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described the attack as “one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday said the strikes had targeted energy facilities supplying Ukraine’s military. It did not give details of those facilities, but said Russian forces used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and strike drones against them.
The energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia launched its all-out invasion more than three years ago.
Each year, Russia has tried to cripple the Ukrainian power grid before the bitter winter season, apparently hoping to erode public morale. Winter temperatures run from late October through March, with January and February the coldest months.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Friday that Russia was taking advantage of the world being “almost entirely focused on the prospect of establishing peace in the Middle East,” and called for strengthening Ukraine’s air defense systems and tighter sanctions on Russia.
“Russian assets must be fully used to strengthen our defense and ensure recovery,” he said in the video, posted to X.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a joint statement on Friday they were ready to move toward using “in a coordinated way, the value of the immobilised Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s armed forces and thus bring Russia to the negotiation table.”
The statement added they aimed to do this “in close cooperation with the United States.”
Ukraine’s budget and military needs for 2026 and 2027 are estimated to total around 130 billion euros ($153 billion). The European Union has already poured in 174 billion euros (about $202 billion) since the war started in February 2022.
The biggest pot of ready funds available is through frozen Russian assets, most of which is held in Belgium – around 194 billion euros ($225 billion) as of June – and outside the EU in Japan, with around $50 billion, and the U.S., U.K. and Canada with lesser amounts.
Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that its air defenses intercepted or jammed 54 of 78 Russian drones launched against Ukraine overnight, while Russia’s defense ministry said it had shot down 42 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.
Dozens were injured in a “savage” Russian drone strike Saturday on a Ukrainian railway station, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Moscow stepped up strikes on Ukraine’s rail and power grids ahead of the fourth winter since its all-out invasion.
At least 30 people sustained injuries, Zelenskyy said of the attack on Shostka, a city northeast of Kyiv that lies some 70 kilometers from the Russian border.
“All emergency services are already on the scene and have begun helping people. All information about the injured is being established,” he said in a post on X.
Russia struck two passenger trains in quick succession, first targeting a local service and then one bound for Kyiv, said Oleksiy Kuleba, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister.
“Medical teams have already transported the injured to hospitals and are providing necessary assistance. Others (who were at the site) are in shelters overseen by rescuers,” Kuleba wrote on Telegram on Saturday. He said an air raid alert was ongoing at the station.
Local Gov. Oleh Hryhorov said a train bound for Kyiv had been hit. Both Zelenskyy and the governor posted what they said were images from the scene showing a passenger carriage on fire.
A savage Russian drone strike on the railway station in Shostka, Sumy region. All emergency services are already on the scene and have begun helping people. All information about the injured is being established. So far, we know of at least 30 victims. Preliminary reports… pic.twitter.com/ZZoWfPmpL5
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 4, 2025
Moscow has recently stepped up airstrikes on Ukraine’s railway network, which is essential for military transport, hitting it almost every day over the past two months. As in previous years since the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the Kremlin has also ramped up attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, in what Kyiv calls an attempt to weaponize the approaching winter by denying civilians heat, light and running water.
Overnight, Russian drones and missiles pounded Ukraine’s power grid overnight into Saturday, a Ukrainian energy firm said, a day after what officials described as the biggest attack on Ukrainian natural gas facilities since Moscow’s all-out invasion more than three and a half years ago.
The strike damaged energy facilities near Chernihiv, a northern city close to the Russian border, and sparked blackouts set to affect some 50,000 households, according to regional operator Chernihivoblenergo.
The head of Chernihiv’s military administration, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, confirmed a nighttime Russian attack on the city caused multiple fires, but did not immediately say what was hit.
The day before, Russia launched its biggest attack of the war against natural gas facilities run by Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz Group, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia fired a total of 381 drones and 35 missiles at Ukraine on Friday, according to Ukraine’s air force, in what officials said was an attempt to wreck the Ukrainian power grid ahead of winter and wear down public support for the 3-year-old conflict.
Naftogaz’s chief executive, Serhii Koretskyi, said Friday the attacks had no military purpose, while Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko accused Moscow of “terrorizing civilians.” Moscow claimed the strikes targeted facilities that support Kyiv’s war effort.
Overnight into Saturday, Russian forces launched a further 109 drones and three ballistic missiles at Ukraine, the Ukrainian military reported. It said 73 of the drones were shot down or sent off course.
Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor, each year as winter approaches, Russian forces have blasted Ukraine’s power grid. Ukraine says it is an attempt to weaponize winter by denying civilians heat, light and running water.
The Secret Service stopped a massive telecom threat near the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Tuesday, just as world leaders gathered for meetings.Agents described the threat as one of the most sweeping communications threats ever found on U.S. soil, involving a hidden network capable of knocking out cell service across the city. Investigators discovered more than 300 SIM servers containing over 100,000 SIM cards within 35 miles of the U.N. headquarters. These servers had the potential to send out millions of fake calls and messages, which could cripple cell towers, jam 911 calls, and flood networks with chaos. An agent compared the potential impact to the blackouts following 9/11 and the Boston Marathon, noting that this system could trigger such a shutdown on demand.Experts warn that the threat extends beyond phones, as banking, emergency services, and even the power grid rely on telecom networks. Matt Pearl from the Center for Strategic and International Studies said, “A lot of this traffic goes over telecom networks, and in some cases, specifically, wireless networks. And so just literally everything in modern life could be hampered or taken down by this.”The investigation is ongoing, with the Secret Service indicating that the operation was highly organized, costing millions, and early signs suggest foreign actors may be involved. Experts say building such a system is not particularly difficult, with the main challenge being financial rather than technical expertise. They are also hard to detect, raising concerns that similar networks could exist in other cities.
WASHINGTON —
The Secret Service stopped a massive telecom threat near the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Tuesday, just as world leaders gathered for meetings.
Agents described the threat as one of the most sweeping communications threats ever found on U.S. soil, involving a hidden network capable of knocking out cell service across the city. Investigators discovered more than 300 SIM servers containing over 100,000 SIM cards within 35 miles of the U.N. headquarters.
These servers had the potential to send out millions of fake calls and messages, which could cripple cell towers, jam 911 calls, and flood networks with chaos. An agent compared the potential impact to the blackouts following 9/11 and the Boston Marathon, noting that this system could trigger such a shutdown on demand.
Experts warn that the threat extends beyond phones, as banking, emergency services, and even the power grid rely on telecom networks.
Matt Pearl from the Center for Strategic and International Studies said, “A lot of this traffic goes over telecom networks, and in some cases, specifically, wireless networks. And so just literally everything in modern life could be hampered or taken down by this.”
The investigation is ongoing, with the Secret Service indicating that the operation was highly organized, costing millions, and early signs suggest foreign actors may be involved.
Experts say building such a system is not particularly difficult, with the main challenge being financial rather than technical expertise. They are also hard to detect, raising concerns that similar networks could exist in other cities.
PORTLAND, OR – Saying extreme weather across the region is causing higher than normal demand for electricity, officials with Pacific Power are encouraging customers to reduce electricity consumption now. They are hoping the voluntarily reduction in power demand will reduce strain on the electrical grid.
Customers can take the following steps to help reduce the strain on the grid:
Switch energy use to off-peak hours (from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.) whenever possible.
Limit use of appliances that generate heat – including dishwashers, ovens and clothes dryers – to the evening or early morning.
Turn off lights, computers, televisions and appliances when not in use.
Hurricane Oscar’s arrival to eastern Cuba Sunday has impacted millions of residents already facing days without power, as fresh attempts to restore much of the nation’s electric grid have failed.In the capital city of Havana early Monday, people were seen outdoors in poor lighting, a few playing dominoes to kill time. Children are opting to sleep outside to cool off from the stifling heat indoors – schools have also been canceled until Thursday.Oscar made landfall near Baracoa along Cuba’s eastern shores around Sunday afternoon as a Category 1 storm with winds of 80 mph. By Sunday night, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced that Oscar had weakened to a tropical storm and was moving toward the west-southwest of the country at 6 mph.“Through Wednesday morning, rainfall amounts of 6 to 12 inches with isolated amounts of 18 inches are expected across eastern Cuba,” the NHC said, adding that as much as 8 inches of rain will appear in isolated amounts in the southeast Bahamas.Earlier Oscar made landfall on Inagua Island in The Bahamas, with maximum estimated sustained winds of 80 mph, the NHC said.On Sunday afternoon the Cuban Electrical Union announced that more than 216,000 people in Havana, a city of 2 million, had power restored. The power grid collapsed again later in the day — for the fourth time since Friday.Some Cubans have taken to the streets, to protest the three-day-long blackout — many banging pots and pans and disrupting traffic.Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel criticized demonstrators for causing public disorder, saying in a video posted on X that “we are not going to allow acts of vandalism and much less alter the tranquillity of our people.”Cuba descended into darkness on Friday, when one of the country’s major power plants failed, according to the Energy Ministry. Since then, most people in the 10 million-strong country have had their access to power interrupted, while also struggling to maintain fresh food and a steady supply of water.Havana residents queue for breadSome people began flooding WhatsApp chats with updates on which areas had power, while others arranged to store medications in the fridges of those who briefly had power – or were lucky enough to have a generator.In Havana, residents waited for hours to buy a few loaves from the handful of locations selling bread in the capital. When the bread sold out, several people argued angrily that they had been skipped in line.Many wondered aloud where Cuba’s traditional allies were, such as Venezuela, Russia and Mexico. Until now, they had been supplying the island with badly needed barrels of oil to keep the lights on.Meanwhile, tourists were still seen circling Havana’s main avenues in classic 1950s cars, although many hotel generators had run out of fuel.One foreign visitor told CNN that Havana’s José Martí International Airport was operating in the dark on emergency power only, adding that printers did not work to issue tickets and there was no air conditioning in the terminal.Reuters reporters witnessed two small protests overnight into Sunday, while videos of protests elsewhere in the capital have also surfaced.The Cuban government is cancelling classes for students from Monday until Wednesday, having previously cancelled them on Friday. It has also instructed non-essential workers to stay home. The U.S. Embassy in Havana will be open only for emergency services on Monday.Cuban officials have blamed the energy crisis on a confluence of events, from increased U.S. economic sanctions to disruptions caused by recent hurricanes and the impoverished state of the island’s infrastructure.In a televised address on Thursday that was delayed by technical difficulties, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said much of the country’s limited production was stopped to avoid leaving people completely without power.“We have been paralyzing economic activity to generate (power) to the population,” he said.The country’s health minister, José Angel Portal Miranda, said Friday on X that the country’s health facilities were running on generators and that health workers continued to provide vital services.
HAVANA, Cuba —
Hurricane Oscar’s arrival to eastern Cuba Sunday has impacted millions of residents already facing days without power, as fresh attempts to restore much of the nation’s electric grid have failed.
In the capital city of Havana early Monday, people were seen outdoors in poor lighting, a few playing dominoes to kill time. Children are opting to sleep outside to cool off from the stifling heat indoors – schools have also been canceled until Thursday.
Oscar made landfall near Baracoa along Cuba’s eastern shores around Sunday afternoon as a Category 1 storm with winds of 80 mph. By Sunday night, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced that Oscar had weakened to a tropical storm and was moving toward the west-southwest of the country at 6 mph.
“Through Wednesday morning, rainfall amounts of 6 to 12 inches with isolated amounts of 18 inches are expected across eastern Cuba,” the NHC said, adding that as much as 8 inches of rain will appear in isolated amounts in the southeast Bahamas.
Earlier Oscar made landfall on Inagua Island in The Bahamas, with maximum estimated sustained winds of 80 mph, the NHC said.
On Sunday afternoon the Cuban Electrical Union announced that more than 216,000 people in Havana, a city of 2 million, had power restored. The power grid collapsed again later in the day — for the fourth time since Friday.
Some Cubans have taken to the streets, to protest the three-day-long blackout — many banging pots and pans and disrupting traffic.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel criticized demonstrators for causing public disorder, saying in a video posted on X that “we are not going to allow acts of vandalism and much less alter the tranquillity of our people.”
Cuba descended into darkness on Friday, when one of the country’s major power plants failed, according to the Energy Ministry. Since then, most people in the 10 million-strong country have had their access to power interrupted, while also struggling to maintain fresh food and a steady supply of water.
Havana residents queue for bread
Some people began flooding WhatsApp chats with updates on which areas had power, while others arranged to store medications in the fridges of those who briefly had power – or were lucky enough to have a generator.
In Havana, residents waited for hours to buy a few loaves from the handful of locations selling bread in the capital. When the bread sold out, several people argued angrily that they had been skipped in line.
Many wondered aloud where Cuba’s traditional allies were, such as Venezuela, Russia and Mexico. Until now, they had been supplying the island with badly needed barrels of oil to keep the lights on.
Meanwhile, tourists were still seen circling Havana’s main avenues in classic 1950s cars, although many hotel generators had run out of fuel.
One foreign visitor told CNN that Havana’s José Martí International Airport was operating in the dark on emergency power only, adding that printers did not work to issue tickets and there was no air conditioning in the terminal.
Reuters reporters witnessed two small protests overnight into Sunday, while videos of protests elsewhere in the capital have also surfaced.
The Cuban government is cancelling classes for students from Monday until Wednesday, having previously cancelled them on Friday. It has also instructed non-essential workers to stay home. The U.S. Embassy in Havana will be open only for emergency services on Monday.
Cuban officials have blamed the energy crisis on a confluence of events, from increased U.S. economic sanctions to disruptions caused by recent hurricanes and the impoverished state of the island’s infrastructure.
In a televised address on Thursday that was delayed by technical difficulties, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said much of the country’s limited production was stopped to avoid leaving people completely without power.
“We have been paralyzing economic activity to generate (power) to the population,” he said.
The country’s health minister, José Angel Portal Miranda, said Friday on X that the country’s health facilities were running on generators and that health workers continued to provide vital services.
Everything is bigger in Texas, so they say, and right now, that’s probably translating to your electric bill. “My bill went up like crazy,” Michelle from Oak Cliff emailed the Observer last week…
It’s become a rite of summer in sunny California: When the temperature spikes, so do electricity bills, leaving some customers with monthly payments over $500.A big reason for that is the way California’s largest power companies calculate rates. The more power you use, the more money you pay — not just for electricity, but also for things like maintaining the grid and reducing wildfire risk.A proposal unveiled Wednesday by state regulators aims to change that. Instead of calculating bills based mostly on how much power people use, a portion would be a fixed charge. For most people, that charge would be $24.15 per month. People who are enrolled in low-income assistance programs or who live in deed-restricted affordable housing would pay less — either $6 or $12, depending on their situation.To offset this new charge, the rate people pay for using power would go down. During peak hours when electricity is in the most demand — and the most expensive — rates for customers of the state’s big three utilities would fall between 8% and 9.8%. That means the average customer in Fresno, where temperatures were at or above 100 F (37.8 C) for 17 days last July, would save about $33 during the summer months, according to the California Public Utilities Commission.People who own electric cars and charge them at home would save about $25 per month on average, while people who have fully electrified their homes — including replacing gas-powered stoves — would save about $19 per month. Other customers whose bills are not impacted as much by the weather would likely see an increase.”I think it’s a wise idea to put us in a position where we’re incentivizing electrification and clean vehicles and then also providing some relief to those customers who really can’t help using a lot of electricity in the summertime,” said Alice Reynolds, president of the California Public Utilities Commission. “This is part of a reaction to a changing climate where we have these extreme weather events.”California is one of the only states that doesn’t already have a fixed charge for its largest utilities, and the state Legislature ordered regulators in 2022 to implement one by July 1 of this year. Since then, power bills have only gotten more expensive. Regulators approved an average increase of $32 per month for Pacific Gas & Electric Company customers just last year. The average price per kilowatt hour of electricity for California’s big three utilities — Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric — is about 36 cents, compared to the national average of 17 cents.The prospect of a new charge that could raise some people’s rates has prompted backlash from some state and federal lawmakers. In the state Legislature, a group of Democrats led by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin has introduced legislation that would cap the fixed charge at $10 for most people and $5 for people with low incomes. Irwin said the California Public Utilities Commission “is out of touch with consumers.””We need to prioritize driving down consumer’s overall bills, not redistributing the ever-increasing (investor-owned utilities) electric rates,” Irwin said.On Wednesday, a group of 18 members of Congress from California sent a letter to Reynolds urging state regulators to keep the new fixed rate low. Their letter said the average monthly fixed charge in the United States is $11.”There is little to stop utilities from continuing to increase electric rates once they secure the highest fixed charges in the country,” the letter said.The Predictable Power Coalition, which includes the big three utilities, called the fixed rate “vital” and said the proposal “is a step in the right direction.” Some of the state’s most well-known consumer advocates, including The Utility Reform Network and the California Public Advocates Office, support the proposal because they say it would make utility bills more affordable.Others, including the solar industry, worry that if electricity rates are cheaper during peak hours people won’t conserve as much energy. California has struggled at times to have enough electricity during these periods, especially during extreme heat waves, which caused some rolling blackouts in 2020.”In this time when it’s all hands on deck about climate change, why would we have people say, ‘You know what? I’m not going to hang out my laundry today because I’m just paying a fixed charge anyway,’” said Bill Allayaud, California director of governmental affairs for the Environmental Working Group.Reynolds noted that California’s big three utilities will still charge more for power during peak hours but that the fixed charge would make sure the increase is more evenly distributed among customers. She also noted the big three had proposed fixed rate charges of $51 and $73. The commission rejected those amounts.Most of California’s publicly owned utilities already have a fixed charge as part of their billing structure. Regulators’ proposal mirrors the fixed rate charged by the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District.”Millions of people already have a flat rate component of their bills. They may not know it,” Reynolds said.If it’s approved by regulators, the rule would take effect in 2025, and customers would not see the charge until later that year or in early 2026.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
It’s become a rite of summer in sunny California: When the temperature spikes, so do electricity bills, leaving some customers with monthly payments over $500.
A big reason for that is the way California’s largest power companies calculate rates. The more power you use, the more money you pay — not just for electricity, but also for things like maintaining the grid and reducing wildfire risk.
A proposal unveiled Wednesday by state regulators aims to change that. Instead of calculating bills based mostly on how much power people use, a portion would be a fixed charge. For most people, that charge would be $24.15 per month. People who are enrolled in low-income assistance programs or who live in deed-restricted affordable housing would pay less — either $6 or $12, depending on their situation.
To offset this new charge, the rate people pay for using power would go down. During peak hours when electricity is in the most demand — and the most expensive — rates for customers of the state’s big three utilities would fall between 8% and 9.8%. That means the average customer in Fresno, where temperatures were at or above 100 F (37.8 C) for 17 days last July, would save about $33 during the summer months, according to the California Public Utilities Commission.
People who own electric cars and charge them at home would save about $25 per month on average, while people who have fully electrified their homes — including replacing gas-powered stoves — would save about $19 per month. Other customers whose bills are not impacted as much by the weather would likely see an increase.
“I think it’s a wise idea to put us in a position where we’re incentivizing electrification and clean vehicles and then also providing some relief to those customers who really can’t help using a lot of electricity in the summertime,” said Alice Reynolds, president of the California Public Utilities Commission. “This is part of a reaction to a changing climate where we have these extreme weather events.”
California is one of the only states that doesn’t already have a fixed charge for its largest utilities, and the state Legislature ordered regulators in 2022 to implement one by July 1 of this year. Since then, power bills have only gotten more expensive. Regulators approved an average increase of $32 per month for Pacific Gas & Electric Company customers just last year. The average price per kilowatt hour of electricity for California’s big three utilities — Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric — is about 36 cents, compared to the national average of 17 cents.
The prospect of a new charge that could raise some people’s rates has prompted backlash from some state and federal lawmakers. In the state Legislature, a group of Democrats led by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin has introduced legislation that would cap the fixed charge at $10 for most people and $5 for people with low incomes. Irwin said the California Public Utilities Commission “is out of touch with consumers.”
“We need to prioritize driving down consumer’s overall bills, not redistributing the ever-increasing (investor-owned utilities) electric rates,” Irwin said.
On Wednesday, a group of 18 members of Congress from California sent a letter to Reynolds urging state regulators to keep the new fixed rate low. Their letter said the average monthly fixed charge in the United States is $11.
“There is little to stop utilities from continuing to increase electric rates once they secure the highest fixed charges in the country,” the letter said.
The Predictable Power Coalition, which includes the big three utilities, called the fixed rate “vital” and said the proposal “is a step in the right direction.” Some of the state’s most well-known consumer advocates, including The Utility Reform Network and the California Public Advocates Office, support the proposal because they say it would make utility bills more affordable.
Others, including the solar industry, worry that if electricity rates are cheaper during peak hours people won’t conserve as much energy. California has struggled at times to have enough electricity during these periods, especially during extreme heat waves, which caused some rolling blackouts in 2020.
“In this time when it’s all hands on deck about climate change, why would we have people say, ‘You know what? I’m not going to hang out my laundry today because I’m just paying a fixed charge anyway,’” said Bill Allayaud, California director of governmental affairs for the Environmental Working Group.
Reynolds noted that California’s big three utilities will still charge more for power during peak hours but that the fixed charge would make sure the increase is more evenly distributed among customers. She also noted the big three had proposed fixed rate charges of $51 and $73. The commission rejected those amounts.
Most of California’s publicly owned utilities already have a fixed charge as part of their billing structure. Regulators’ proposal mirrors the fixed rate charged by the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District.
“Millions of people already have a flat rate component of their bills. They may not know it,” Reynolds said.
If it’s approved by regulators, the rule would take effect in 2025, and customers would not see the charge until later that year or in early 2026.
As a bitcoin mining enterprise, Riot Platforms runs thousands of computers in the energy-guzzling pursuit of minting digital currency. Recently, however, the company got big bucks from Texas to lower the mining operation’s electricity usage.
Riot said on Wednesday that the state’s power grid operator paid the company $31.7 million in energy credits in August — or roughly $22 million more than the value of the bitcoin it mined that month — to cut its energy consumption during a record-breaking heatwave in the state.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the state’s power grid, issues the credits to incentivize companies to reduce activities that might strain the state’s already overloaded energy system.
“The effects of these credits significantly lower Riot’s cost to mine bitcoin and are a key element in making Riot one of the lowest cost producers of bitcoin in the industry,” CEO Jason Les said in a statement.
Riot, which is publicly traded, in 2022 reported a loss of more than $500 million on revenue of $259.2 million. In its most recent quarter, it had a loss of roughly $27 million on revenue of $76.7 million.
Texas’ power grid has faced growing demand from consumers and businesses in recent years as climate change leads to more extreme weather. In 2021, residents faced a blackout when a snowstorm knocked out coal and gas facilities, nuclear plants, and wind turbines.
The strain on the grid persists. On Wednesday, Texas officials declared an emergency as sky-high temperatures again threatened to trigger rolling blackouts across the state. ERCOT asked that residents and business owners conserve energy between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., according to CBS News Texas.
“Operating reserves are expected to be low this afternoon due to continued high temperatures, high demand, low wind, & declining solar power generation into the afternoon & evening hours,” the group said in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Bitcoin mining, in which virtual transactions are verified on a computer network in exchange for a certain amount of bitcoin, is highly energy-intensive. Bitcoin consumes roughly 110 Terawatt Hours per year, or 0.55% of global electricity production — roughly equivalent to that consumed by Sweden, data from the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance shows.
Riot did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Public concerns
Heavy energy consumption from bitcoin mining has caused a stir in Texas, with some people expressing anger that their tax dollars are subsidizing energy credits for miners. Residents of Navarro County, Texas, started a petition last year opposing a bitcoin mining facility in their area.
“This factory-that-produces-nothing will affect every single citizen of Navarro County and MUST BE STOPPED,” reads the petition, which has amassed nearly 1,200 signatures. “We do NOT want this enormous burden on our already fragile infrastructure.”
Some Texas lawmakers have also grown wary of cryptocurrency mining. In April, the state’s senate passed a bill that would limit incentives for miners participating in the state’s energy grid load-reduction program.
For now, the credits are a boon for Riot and other bitcoin miners whose profits have dried up during a cryptocurrency market downturn deepened by the collapse of exchange FTX last fall.
Rosamond, California — Next to the rows of alfalfa, another type of farm is taking root in Southern California’s Kern County, one that’s harvesting clean, renewable energy.
Solar Star, one of the largest solar farms in the U.S., has a peak output of 586 megawatts.
“These panels track the sun all day,” said Alicia Knapp, president and CEO of BHE Renewables, which owns Solar Star. (I’ll double-check all quotes)
Solar Star produces enough electricity to power about 255,000 California homes a year, according to Knapp.
There are more than 5,000 solar farms across the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In 2022, they produced 3.4% of the nation’s electricity, the agency said.
Dozens of new facilities are being added every month. The increase in available solar energy is a much-needed boost for power grids currently strained by this summer’s record-breaking heat.
On Thursday, PJM Interconnection, the largest electrical grid operator in the nation, issued a level one emergency alert, warning of potential blackouts from Chicago to Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, like a mirage in the desert, the 1.72 million panels that make up Solar Star cover five square-miles of unused farmland.
Knapp said that constructing transmission lines to transport the electricity is significantly more challenging than acquiring the land for the panels.
“And what could make things even more difficult is if your transmission corridor goes between states,” Knapp explained.
Lorelei Oviatt, director of planning and natural resources for Kern County, told CBS News that “red tape” and delays in constructing power lines are holding back solar growth.
“When Sacramento tells me that they need 600,000 acres of solar, my question to them is, ‘Where is the transmission?’ And the reason is because people don’t like them,” Oviatt said.
Another issue is that too much solar power is wasted. Solar Star sometimes generates more than is demanded of it, “mainly in the peak of the day,” Knapp said.
The most common method to store excess power is through a process known as pumped storage hydropower, which uses the extra electricity to pump water to an uphill reservoir. When the power is needed, the water is released back downhill through a generator.
Knapp says that recent advances in technology will soon connect more farms to giant rechargeable batteries that will enable the use of solar power long after the sun goes down.
“You want to be able to maximize the output and store the energy, and then use it when you need it,” Knapp said.
Large swaths of the southern U.S. experienced triple-digit temperatures again Thursday, from California all the way to Florida. The heat is straining power grids, and energy bills are predicted to jump considerably this summer. Carter Evans reports.
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Americans are scrambling to buy AC units, fans, cooling mats and other products to help beat the heat, as temperatures soar to record highs across the country.
Amazon sales for air conditioners shot up 248% over the past 30 days, compared with the same period last year, with portable AC unit sales rising 208%, according to data analytics platform Jungle Scout. Sales for cooling gel patches and cooling pads for pets rose 226% and 365%, respectively.
Consumers are searching for ways to stay cool as a dangerous heat wave sweeps across the U.S. On Saturday, temperatures in the Southwest reached triple digits. The blistering temperatures have prompted officials to place more than a third of Americans under extreme heat advisories.
The heat wave comes as global temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, scientists say. In North America, the temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.49°F each year since 1981, data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows.
The rising temperatures have prompted people to use their air conditioners and fans more often, which is straining the U.S. power grid. Use of air conditioning units is likely to grow as temperatures continue to climb. The U.S. air-conditioning market was estimated to be worth $188 billion in 2023, a number that could increase to about $252 billion by 2028, according to market research firm Mordor Intelligence.
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A Washington man pleaded guilty in federal court to vandalizing four power substations in Tacoma, Washington, that knocked out power to more than 14,000 customers on Christmas, the Department of Justice said in a news release on Friday.
Matthew Greenwood, 32, of Puyallup said in his plea that he and Jeremy Crahan, 40, vandalized the substations and plotted to fell trees to take out power lines.
Four substations were attacked: Kapowsin and Graham substations in Graham, Washington, operated by Tacoma Power, Elk Plain substation in Spanaway, Washington, and Hemlock Substation in Puyallup, Washington, the Department of Justice said.
The first substation, located in Spanaway and belonging to Tacoma Public Utilities, was attacked on December 25, 2022, around 5:30 a.m. local time, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
The other substations were damaged during the early morning hours, police said.
Greenwood and Crahan planned the substation attack so they could rob ATM machines and businesses of money while the power was down, the news release said. Since his arrest Greenwood has been in intensive drug treatment, the news release said.
A man has been arrested in California for allegedly blowing up two Pacific Gas and Electric transformers and causing “destruction and harm to public safety.”
Peter Karasev, 36, was identified with cell phone data and video surveillance footage. He made his first court appearance on Friday, Mar. 3, and is being held without bail, according to jail records.
The blasts left about a thousand people without power.
“Related to the transformer bombings, he’s charged with two counts of exploding a destructive device as well as two counts of destroying an electrical line as well as an arson charge,” said Deputy District Attorney Victoria Robinson of Santa Clara County.
According to police, the investigation into Karasev began on Jan. 5, when officers with the San Jose Police Department responded to a report of an exploded transformer at 3:16 a.m. local time. Windows were broken at a dental office nearest the transformer. Officers believed it was just a malfunction, but later in the day were summoned back to the scene when “evidence of an explosive device was located.”
Video surveillance reviewed by investigators and officers showed a person, later identified as Karasev, approaching the area on a bicycle while wearing a backpack. The footage showed Karasev place the backpack at the bottom of the transformer box, appear to use an “ignition source,” and then get back on the bicycle and ride off. Moments later, the backpack and transformer exploded. The transformer appeared to burn for several minutes before causing a large explosion.
PG&E employees then told police that a similar incident had occurred on Dec. 8, 2022, when the company was alerted to a power outage at around 4 a.m. local time. That incident was also believed to be a malfunction, but detectives found “very similar details” and “similar visual residue” at both scenes, according to the San Jose Bomb Squad.
The two sites were about three miles apart.
The investigation soon led to Karasev. Police identified him using cell phone information.
During the course of the investigation, investigators also found that Karasev had purchased chemicals from an online distributor twice in 2022. Those chemicals, police said, are associated with the manufacturing of narcotics.
When police served a warrant on Karasev’s residence, where he lived with his wife and three children, they found “a large quantity of hazardous chemicals” and “various materials used for making destructive devices.” An inactive methamphetamine lab was also found on the property, with finished product. Specialized bomb units from California and other units have responded to the scene.
Investigators also found an unsecured firearm and the same bike seen in the surveillance footage.
The investigation at Karasev’s home remains ongoing. Robinson said that Karasev has also been charged with “possessing materials with the intent to create a destructive device.”
Karasev is next expected to appear in court on Apr. 26 for a plea hearing. He is being represented by a public defender, according to court records.
Physical attacks on the U.S. power grid rose last year by 71%, compared to 2021 and surpassed 2020 figures by 20%. The industry’s preeminent clearinghouse predicts the number of serious incidents will continue to rise this year.
CBS News has obtained a confidential analysis of physical attacks on the U.S. power grid authored by the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC), which is a data center documenting threats against the electrical system and a division of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).
According to the analysis, E-ISAC “assesses with medium confidence that the recent uptick in serious physical security incidents is likely to continue into 2023 based on the number and nature of recent attacks combined with the overall current heightened threat environment.”
An uptick in ballistic damage, intrusion (tampering) and vandalism incidents drove the increase in “grid impacting” incidents since 2021, according to the analysis.
“The smaller 20% increase (2020 to 2022) is due to the high number of serious incidents that occurred during 2020 that can be attributed to the onset of COVID, increased social tensions and a decline in economic conditions,” the study found.
A “unusual” number of “repeat and clustered attacks” on infrastructure in the Southeast, Midwest and Pacific Northwest occurred in 2022 involving “individual sites being repeatedly targeted or multiple sites being targeted within close proximity to one another.”
One of those attacks occurred last December, with the deliberate shooting of power substations in Moore County, North Carolina, leaving 45,000 people in the dark for several days.
The analysis by E-ISAC is the most comprehensive and includes mandatory reporting of incidents to federal agencies or NERC, as well as voluntary disclosures made in confidence.
And while E-ISAC has determined that “overall physical security incident sharing” has increased by 11% since 2021 and 25% since 2020, analysts assess that the spike in grid-impacting incidents “is due to an actual increase in the electric industry’s risk environment and is not just the result of fluctuations in information-sharing patterns by utilities.”
Between 2020 and 2022, E-ISAC tracked 4,493 incidents: 502 received through mandatory reporting and 3,991 through voluntary means.
The vast majority — 97% — of the incidents “resulted in no disruption of service.” But the remaining 3% of incidents resulted in “varying levels of grid impacts.”
Altogether, 60 incidents that impacted the grid were reported in 2022, with a significant increase in more serious Level 2 (72%) and Level 3 (67%) incidents that analysts conclude represented “an actual increase in the risk environment across North America.”
Toplines of this study were first reported by WSJ.
“It’s important to note that new fencing, cameras, or better lighting isn’t going to prevent attacks. They will continue to happen,” said Brian Harrell, former assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “This is why we must invest in resilience, adding redundancy, and removing single points of failure. Certain attacks on critical infrastructure should be legally treated as domestic terrorism.”
Harrell said that he suspects groups or individuals plotting these incidents to “go underground” in the short term because of increased attention by law enforcement recently, but he ultimately anticipates attacks will escalate in 2023.
According to industry analysis obtained by CBS News, incidents affecting power grids may occur outside the perimeter with suspects “throwing objects at electrified equipment and components to cause de-energization” and “focused ballistic attacks aimed at de-energizing equipment or causing fires by targeting a specific area of a specific component.” Inside the perimeter, intrusions may occur into control houses to damage or destroy equipment, set fires or tamper with switches.
Groups have different motivations for attacking grid assets. Economic crimes — theft of copper, tools and catalytic converters — remain a challenge for the industry.
But while regulators have worried about targeting of substations for years, there is mounting concern among industry analysts that racially motivated violent extremists, lone wolves and radical environmentalists present an elevated threat, perhaps linked to more readily available information online about specific tactics, techniques and procedures.
In January, two people were charged in connection with Christmas-Day attacks on substations in Pierce County, Washington state, impacting thousands of customers.
This month, two people — including a known neo-Nazi — were indicted by a federal grand jury after allegedly plotting to attack five power substations in Maryland and Pennsylvania to “lay waste” to the city of Baltimore.
Sarah Beth Clendaniel and Brandon Russell allegedly planned the offensive online. According to court documents, Clendaniel “described how there was a ‘ring’ around Baltimore and if they hit a number of them all in the same day, they ‘would completely destroy this whole city.’”
“=The vision, in short, is that tThey want to take down the energy grid because if they take down the energy grid, they believe that society will then collapse,” Wainstein said. “And out of the collapse, [they believe], will arise a white nationalist government to replace the current government. And we’ve seen this narrative online among these white nationalist groups.”
White supremacist plots targeting the grid have “dramatically increased in frequency,” according to a study released in September by The Program on Extremism at George Washington University. From 2016 to 2022, thirteen people linked to white supremacist movements have been charged in federal courts with plotting attacks on electrical infrastructure, including 11 defendants indicted after 2020.
The Justice Department has charged a Maryland woman and a neo-Nazi leader from Florida for allegedly plotting to attack Baltimore’s power grid. CBS News homeland security and justice reporter Nicole Sganga joined CBS News to discuss.
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Japan’s largest electric power company is about to start mining bitcoin.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Power Grid is partnering with TRIPLE-1, a local semiconductor designer and developer, to mine bitcoin with excess energy across the country, CoinDesk first reported. TEPCO is the country’s largest electric power company in total assets, per Statista data.
TEPCO is the utility behind the Fukushima nuclear reactor, which in 2011 was struck by an earthquake and huge tsunami that knocked out some of its cooling systems, allowing three reactors to melt down. The power company later admitted that it had failed to take stronger measures to prevent such disasters. TEPCO is still suffering from the accident, as compensation for victims is taking a toll on its profitability to this day. Now, its power transmission and distribution company, TEPCO Power Grid, is seeking ways to monetize surplus power with bitcoin mining through its wholly-owned subsidiary Agile Energy X.
TEPCO is joining major global energy companies in jumping on the bitcoin mining bandwagon. And a common denominator for most of them is a need to monetize excess power, something BTC mining does very well. ConocoPhillips is selling stranded gas to bitcoin miners in the Bakken, an oil-abundant region in the U.S. –– a similar strategy to what Exxon is doing. The oil giant reportedly has an agreement with Crusoe Energy Systems to redirect gas that would otherwise be wasted from an oil well pad to mobile bitcoin mines. TEPCO’s setup also goes along those lines.
According to a translated version of a Wednesday statement by the Japanese energy giant, Agile Energy X signed a memorandum of understanding with TRIPLE-1 on November 11 to build a constructive strategic partnership. Through the collaboration, Agile aims to deploy distributed data centers throughout Japan that repurposes surplus electricity from renewable energy with semiconductors from TRIPLE-1.
A pilot project has already been set up on the premises of TEPCO Power Grid’s office in the Tokyo metropolitan area, per the statement. “We have started experiments to confirm the system behavior and the impact on the power grid when equipment is operated with a large amount of power on the scale of 1,500 kW, and have confirmed that the equipment can operate normally.”
TEPCO’s bitcoin mining pilot venture in Tokyo with TRIPLE-1. (Image/TEPCO)
“TRIPLE-1’s state-of-the-art process technology will be used for the computational computers used in this project, and we will exclusively introduce semiconductors with extremely high power performance,” per the statement. “We believe that selecting and introducing energy-saving products that have a low environmental impact is an important initiative toward the realization of a carbon-neutral society.”
Russian forces continue to pummel the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a city Moscow sees as essential to its ambitions to seize all of the eastern Donbas region. Imtiaz Tyab reports.
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There are elevated concerns about the security of America’s power grid infrastructure after gunfire took out two substations in Moore County, North Carolina. Mark Strassmann has the latest.
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Domestic stocks are likely to see a positive start to the week, thanks to firm global cues. Asian markets were trading mostly higher in early trade despite a rise in the dollar index. All eyes would be on a host of PSU Q2 earnings and the kick-start of Keystone Realtors’ initial public offer. Here’s what you should know before the Opening Bell:
Nifty outlook
Nifty on Friday took out its previous swing high and formed a bullish candle on the daily chart. On the weekly chart as well, the index formed a bullish candle but with a long lower wick, suggesting intra-week selling was bought into. One can expect further upside ahead, analysts said.
SGX Nifty signals a positive start
Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange quoted 16.50 points, or 0.09 per cent, higher at 18,452.50, hinting at a positive start for the domestic market on Monday.
Asian markets rise in early trade
Asian markets, barring Japan, were trading mostly higher in Monday’s trade. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 2.42 per cent; China’s Shanghai Composite advanced 0.6 per cent; Taiwan’s TWSE index rose 0.91 per cent while Korea’s Kospi edged 0.10 per cent higher. Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.70 per cent.
US stocks settle higher
US stocks indices settled higher on Friday amid continued optimism over cooler-than-expected US inflation print. Dow Jones rose 32.49 points, or 0.10 per cent, to settle at 33,747.86. The S&P500 index advanced 36.56 points, or 0.92 per cent, to 3,992.93. Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 209.18 points, or 1.88 per cent, to 11,323.33.
Q2 results today
ONGC, NMDC, IRCTC, Bharat Forge, Apollo Tyres, Grasim Industries, Balkrishna Industries, Biocon, GMR Airports Infrastructure, and Godrej Industries are among the companies that will announce their quarterly results today.
Corporate actions today
Monday will see at least six stocks namely Power Grid, Jamna Auto Industries, EPL, Nicco Parks, Amrutanjan Health Care, and SMC Global Securities going ex-dividend. Shares of Arfin India will split from a face value of Rs 10 each to Re 1. Compuage Infocom will go ex-rights today.
Keystone Realtors IPO to open today
Mumbai-based realty firm Keystone Realtors’ Rs 635 crore initial public offer will hit the market on Monday. The IPO consists of a fresh issue of equity shares, aggregating up to Rs 560 crore, and an offer for sale (OFS) worth Rs 75 crore by promoters. The price band for the issue has been fixed at Rs 514-541 a share.
Stocks in F&O ban
Shares of GNFC and Punjab National Bank are banned in the F&O segment today. Derivative contracts in security is banned when it crosses 95 per cent of the market-wide position limit (MWPL). No new positions can be created in the derivative contracts of said security. This prohibition is lifted when the open interest in the stock drops below 80 per cent of the MWPL across exchanges.
FPIs buy shares worth Rs 3,958 crore
Provisional data available with NSE suggests FPIs were net buyers of domestic stocks to the tune of Rs 3,958.23 crore on Friday. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were buyers of equities to the tune of Rs 615.54 crore.
Rupee jumps 62 paise against dollar
The rupee rose 62 paise to settle at 80.78 against the dollar on Friday, as moderating US CPI data coupled with a fall in the dollar index boosted investor sentiment. Forex traders said positive domestic equities and sustained foreign fund inflows also supported the local unit, PTI reported.
