U.S. Department of Defense proactively eliminating Chinese battery energy storage systems from use due to foreign threat risks

The U.S. Department of Defense has proactively begun eliminating all Chinese-made battery energy storage system (BESS) from use across all branches of the military according to a letter addressed to Florida Senator Macro Rubio. The new policy is in response to the discovery that Chinese-made BESS batteries were installed at Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune.

The push by President Biden to switch from oil and gas power to electricity and solar has had unexpected side-effects. BESS connected to the electrical grid can potentially be remotely hacked to overheat batteries and disrupt grid power delivery. Even in 2019, the energy sector was the target of 16% of all worldwide cyberattacks. Prior energy-related cyberattacks have resulted in power outages in Ukraine, disruption of uranium enrichment in Iran, and stoppage of natural gas in America.

Concerned readers should ensure their backup power systems are fully operational off-grid without any Wi-Fi or network connection. Those who haven’t prepped for the inevitable power grid attack should consider buying a backup generator (like this at Amazon) to survive the coldest winter days.

American lawmakers became aware of the issue on military bases in 2023 when Duke Energy had installed Chinese CATL batteries at Camp Lejeune. Duke Energy said in December 2023 that it had promptly disconnected those BESS in response to concerns by dozens of congressmen, then said in February 2024 it would decommission them entirely.

In response to the lawmakers’ concerns, the DoD sent Senator Rubio a letter in March 2024 that stated: “To prevent any supply chain risks from occurring in the future, the DoD will require, to the maximum extent possible, that our partners source all components from American or allied-nation sources.” The European Commission has also adopted in March the EU network code on cybersecurity for the electricity sector as their first major step in coordinating cyberattack countermeasures.