Power Grid Attacks Spur Talk of Tougher Supply Chain Standards

US energy regulators weighed new or stronger federal standards to require utilities and manufacturers to look deeper into their supply chains amid the rising volume and complexity of cybersecurity and physical threats to the power grid.

Utilities and purchasers of energy equipment find it increasingly difficult to trace the origin and security of all their components, a panel of grid security officials and industry experts told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Energy Department during a meeting Wednesday.

Regulators, who enforce reliability and cybersecurity standards on electric utilities, convened days after a gun attack on a substation knocked out power ...