GC: n
CT: The power grid is vulnerable to attack — there’s no question about that. In my own work, testing the security readiness of US and global energy companies and utilities, I regularly find serious vulnerabilities on these networks and I am often called in to deal with compromises that have already taken place — including cyber-espionage activities by state-sponsored groups.
S: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-hackers-can-do-to-our-power-grid-2014-11 (last access: 3 March 2015)
N: 1. power (n): c.1300, “ability; ability to act or do; strength, vigor, might,” especially in battle; “efficacy; control, mastery, lordship, dominion; legal power or authority; authorization; military force, an army,” from Anglo-French pouair, Old French povoir, noun use of the infinitive, “to be able,” earlier podir (9c.), from Vulgar Latin potere, from Latin potis “powerful”.
grid (n): 1839, shortening of gridiron. City planning sense is from 1954 (hence gridlock). Meaning “network of transmission lines” first recorded 1926.
2. The power grid is the system of producers and consumers of electricity. It includes power generators, the users of electricity, switches that control the electricity, and the system of substations, power lines, and transformers that deliver the electricity. A community might have a generator to provide its power. The generator may be able to vary its production as the usage of the customers changes, but there may be times when the demand for energy is too great for the generator. Then the community buys electricity from another source. At other times, the generator may be making more electricity than the community is using, so it wants to sell it.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=power+grid&searchmode=none (last access: 3 March 2015). 2. http://tcipg.mste.illinois.edu/applet/pg (last access: 3 March 2015).
SYN: electricity grid, grid, electricity network, electric network, network, electricity mains, mains, electricity supply system, electric power system.
S: GDT
