The Department of Energy opened a 30 day comment window on a request for information that asks utilities, manufacturers, and equipment owners a question with real consequences for the power grid: how much of the foreign made hardware already installed on the American bulk-power system could be identified, isolated, monitored, or physically replaced, and at what cost.

The request implements an executive order declaring a national emergency with respect to the bulk-power system, issued on August 26, 2026. As the department summarizes it, the order found that minimal restrictions on acquiring or operating foreign-produced grid equipment in the United States widen the ability of some foreign entities to create and exploit vulnerabilities, and that such equipment "might have digital backdoors built into their systems" allowing remote access by a foreign country.

That finding is the reason this is not an abstract policy story. The order gives the Secretary of Energy authority over equipment acquired or installed before the order date, including the ability to impose conditions on continued use and to require owners to identify, isolate, monitor, secure, disconnect, replace, or remove it. Before directing isolation, disconnection, replacement, or removal, the Secretary must consider effects on reliability, safety, the availability of secure replacements, and continuity of essential service, and may establish phased compliance.

Equipment Categories Named in the Request

The bulk-power system is the high-voltage backbone that moves electricity from generating plants to the local distribution networks serving homes and businesses. It includes transformers, breakers, protective relays, and the control systems that operate them.

The department is asking where the boundaries of that definition should sit, and the categories it names bring the review much closer to the clean energy buildout than the phrase bulk-power system suggests. The notice specifically asks what objective characteristics should apply to utility-scale and other grid-connected inverters, battery energy storage systems, universal power systems supporting critical infrastructure, small generators, backup generators, industrial control systems, and equipment used in facilities that combine transmission and distribution functions.

Inverters and battery storage are the connection point between the transmission network and the solar and storage projects that utilities and households have added in recent years. The department is also asking how to treat associated software, firmware, digital services, maintenance services, and remote-access capabilities, and how to handle general-purpose hardware, commercial and open-source software, telecommunications, and cloud infrastructure that support both grid and non-grid functions.

Sub-Tier Supply Chains Are the Open Question

One of the more revealing passages in the document is a question the department poses rather than answers. It asks how far into sub-tier supply chains asset owners, vendors, and service providers can reasonably trace ownership, manufacturing location, software and firmware provenance, and access rights, and how unknown or unavailable information should be treated.

A related question asks which data fields owners currently maintain for installed equipment, listing manufacturer, model, serial number, production facility, country of manufacture, supplier, installation date, firmware and software versions, component provenance, network connectivity, and remote-access pathways. It then asks what information is commonly unavailable for installed equipment, and what reasonable methods could estimate or validate origin, ownership, access, and risk. Taken together, the questions suggest the department does not assume a complete national inventory exists.

The department also asks which insecure-by-design or vulnerable protocols, services, or default configurations remain in use, cannot be disabled, or require compensating controls. Those questions are directed at industry because the answers sit with equipment owners and vendors rather than with the government.

Rates, Rural Cooperatives, and Small Entities

The consumer pathway here is not speculative, because the department raises it directly. The notice asks how prohibitions, transaction reviews, licensing, mitigation, prequalification, domestic manufacturing preferences, or existing-equipment measures could affect equipment prices, lead times, supplier concentration, competition, innovation, financing, insurance, warranties, and maintenance support.

It goes further and asks about potential effects on consumers, electricity rates, regional markets, rural and remote systems, publicly owned and cooperative utilities, and the broader economy. Capital costs incurred by regulated utilities are generally recovered from customers through rate proceedings, so equipment replacement at scale would eventually be reflected on bills. Small businesses and other small entities are singled out for a separate set of questions about access to ownership and provenance information, bargaining power with large suppliers, certification and testing costs, minimum order quantities, long lead times, and access to capital.

The department asks what one-time and recurring compliance costs would look like, broken out by respondent type and size, and what flexibilities could reduce disproportionate burden while maintaining security. Nothing has been decided. The notice states explicitly that it is issued solely for informational and planning purposes and does not constitute a proposed rule, order, directive, license, or determination concerning any country, person, transaction, equipment, or vendor.

Webinar Date and the Rulemaking Clock

The department will hold a public webinar on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, with registration details to be posted by the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response. A transcript will be added to the docket.

Written responses, data, and information will be accepted on or before October 9, 2026. Submissions go to the rulemaking docket for this notice through the federal eRulemaking portal or by email. The department asks respondents not to include classified national security information or detailed exploit instructions, and points to its confidential business information rules for anything a submitter believes is exempt from public disclosure.

Two deadlines in the executive order set the pace after that. The Secretary was directed to publish implementing rules or regulations as needed within 120 days of the order, which points to late December 2026, and to develop recommended revisions to federal acquisition rules within 180 days, pointing to late February 2027. Neither the list of countries or companies that would be treated as covered foreign entities nor the criteria for identifying them has been published. The order states that determination may be made through rules and regulations issued later, rather than in this notice.

Utility customers will not see any immediate change. The practical near-term audience is the industry itself. Asset owners, manufacturers, integrators, installers, and service providers now have roughly a month to put cost and feasibility data on the record before the department writes rules that could require replacing installed hardware.

What Readers Want to Know

What did the Energy Department actually issue?

A request for information, not a rule. It gathers industry data to inform how the department will implement an August 2026 executive order on securing the bulk-power system.

Does this affect rooftop solar on my house?

Not directly. The review targets bulk-power system equipment, though the department is asking whether and how grid-connected inverters and battery energy storage systems should fall within scope.

Could utilities be ordered to remove equipment already installed?

The executive order gives the Secretary of Energy that authority, subject to first considering reliability, safety, availability of secure replacements, and continuity of essential service. No such order has been issued.

Would this raise electricity bills?

No cost estimate exists. The department is asking industry for exactly that data, including potential effects on consumers, rates, rural systems, and cooperative utilities.

When is the comment deadline?

Responses will be accepted on or before October 9, 2026. A public webinar is scheduled for September 16 from 3 to 4 p.m. EDT.

Which countries or companies are covered?

None have been named. Covered foreign entities would be identified through rules or regulations issued later, not through this notice.

Where can the public submit comments?

Through the federal rulemaking portal under docket DOE-HQ-2026-1123, or by email to the address listed in the notice.