Are data center power problems a national security threat? | NBC4 Washington

Robert Liscouski, a former Bush administration appointee and the first assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security, has issued a dire warning regarding the concentration of data centers in Northern Virginia. He asserts that the stressed electrical grid, combined with the region's vast data center infrastructure, presents a major national security threat, likening its potential impact to the scale of 9/11 due to cascading effects on critical infrastructure, finance, logistics, communications, and government services.

Liscouski, a Loudoun County resident, recently sent a letter to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors outlining his concerns. He emphasized that an outage in this region would not merely be a business setback but a national security crisis. His warning follows an exclusive report from July about a power grid ripple that nearly caused a blackout across the East Coast, from Chicago to Miami. Dominion Energy confirmed that a transmission line serving data centers in Ashburn, Virginia, went offline, causing these facilities to switch to backup power, creating instability.

The former official also pointed to over 1,400 power interruptions experienced by Fairfax County Public Schools since July, although Dominion Energy has not directly linked these to data center strain. Liscouski cautions that without bolstering the electrical grid, foreign adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran could easily disrupt power to schools, banks, hospitals, and businesses. He urges local authorities to understand the implications of further data center development, despite the 200 already present in the region.