The order bans some foreign equipment from being used in the U.S. power grid.
President Donald Trump declared a national emergency Aug. 26 to secure the national power grid, citing unusual and extraordinary foreign cyber and security threats.
The order prohibits certain foreign-made bulk-power system electric equipment, including software, that poses cybersecurity or operational risks, from being purchased or installed in the United States.
“Certain foreign actors are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in the United States bulk-power system, which provides the electricity that supports our national defense, vital emergency services, critical infrastructure, and economy,” Trump said in the order.
The order focuses on transactions with foreign nationals that pose the risk of sabotage, unauthorized access, or other disruption, an “undue risk of catastrophic effects on the security or resiliency of U.S. critical infrastructure, or an unacceptable risk to the security of the U.S.”
The order doesn’t apply to facilities used for local distribution of electric energy, according to the White House.
The energy secretary was ordered to impose conditions on continued use and operation of the equipment as needed to address the security concerns, and to publish rules for operating under the emergency order.
Experts say vulnerabilities in the national power grid present an attractive target for sabotage.
China has been studying how to hack and crash the system, even conducting simulations to identify the minimal effort or cost required to trigger a large-scale outage or systemic collapse, according to a study by cybersecurity researcher Erika Langerová with the Czech Technical University in Prague.
“What amplifies this threat even further is how deeply Western energy infrastructure is being built on Chinese-made technologies,” Langerová wrote in an article published in 2025.
Critical components of zero-emission energy projects rely on Chinese-made hardware and software—often with potential remote access capabilities.
Last year, lawmakers called for an investigation into reports that China potentially installed kill switches in solar panels sold to the United States.
“We were alarmed by recent reports indicating that Communist China has already compromised the integrity of power inverters connecting our power grid,” Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote in a letter to the Department of Commerce. “We are concerned about recent reports indicating these CCP-manufactured parts and systems allow for remote access, unauthorized data exfiltration, and even operational disruption.”
Foreign cyber hackers have already attacked public utilities this year, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
