The location of PG&E’s Metcalf Transmission Substation is marked with “A” (Google).
A military-style raid on April 16 , 2013 knocked out 17 giant transformers at the Metcalf Transmission Substation, which feeds power to Silicon Valley, according to a disturbing report in the LA times.
According to the report:
“They came after midnight, two or more armed individuals so deft that they cut telecommunication cables in an underground vault and outsmarted security cameras and motion sensors at the power substation in a remote corner of Santa Clara County.
At daylight, FBI agents began poring over time-lapse photographs from the surveillance cameras. But the photos revealed only staccato muzzle flashes from a semiautomatic weapon and sparks as shots hit rows of transformers. There was not a face, not a shadow, of who was doing the firing.
The shooters disappeared into the gloom minutes before the first police car arrived.”
The article went on to say:
“Officials say the attackers brought night-vision scopes for their weapons, used heavy wire cutters to snip fiber-optic cables in a below-ground bunker and knew the specific manholes to open to reach the right cables.
The team briefly disabled the 911 emergency system and phone lines. They set off a motion detector by the fence before leaving, but the facility sits beside U.S. 101, a convenient escape route” (Source: Sophisticated but low-tech power grid attack baffles authorities http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-grid-attack-20140211,0,7627269.story#ixzz2tZzYhMcJ).