Terry Jarrett, the Missouri state utility regulator, tells a story about how hackers two years back busted into the computer networks of a Puerto Rico utility. Before the dust settle, hundreds of millions of dollars a year were lost.

That was just money. Other crisis scenario planners worry that a successful prolonged disruption of power supplies would quickly cripple and panic our homeland.

Jarrett, who heads up state regulators’ critical infrastructure working group, wants to make sure state regulators fully grasp the problem and the tools available to address it.

He wrote about it in the July/August issue of EnergyBiz.

He will join with two other nationally prominent experts on grid security – who also wrote white papers on the topic in the current issue of EnergyBiz to discuss the topic in an EnergyBiz Leadership Series webcast at noon EDT this Thursday.

He will be joined by Terry Boston, president and chief executive officer of PJM Interconnection, and Gerry Cauley, president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp.

Boston in his piece in EnergyBiz observed that since a successful attack on the grid would cause grave national economic and security problems, utilities and regulators are treating the issue as a top priority. “A successful cyber attack is not inevitable, but we will never trust the security of our energy infrastructure to luck.”

Listen in to our important discussion about the dimensions of the threats to cyber security and the robust industry and regulatory response. Click here to register and then tune in this Thursday at noon EDT.