On August 27, 2026, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14420, entitled “Declaring a National Energy Emergency to Secure the United States Bulk-Power System” (EO 14420) that declares a national emergency to secure the US bulk-power system through prohibitions on bulk-power system electric equipment. EO 1442 explains that “[t]he rapid growth of advanced manufacturing, data centers, artificial intelligence, and defense production has increased the Nation’s dependence on abundant, reliable electricity and magnified the consequences of a successful attack or supply disruption on the bulk-power system.” The restrictions of EO 14420 are intended to combat efforts to create and exploit vulnerabilities in such equipment. Further, the order states that continued reliance on foreign sources of bulk-power system electric equipment creates a supply chain vulnerability to the United States that the order attempts to address.
In his prior term, President Trump signed a similar executive order (Executive Order 13920, May 1, 2020) that declared a national emergency and limited the purchasing of foreign-made bulk-power system equipment in the United States. On January 20, 2021, President Joseph Biden issued an executive order suspending EO 13920 for 90 days to allow for a comprehensive review of its scope. In April 2021, the US Department of Energy (DOE) formally revoked a specific December 2020 prohibition tied to EO 13920. Rather than relying solely on outright bans of foreign equipment, President Biden signed a national security memorandum establishing voluntary cybersecurity performance goals for electric utilities and other critical infrastructure.
EO 14420 restricts certain acquisitions, importations, transfers, or installations of foreign-produced bulk-power system electric equipment—or any critical component, software, firmware, digital service, maintenance service, or remote-access capability associated with such equipment—designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by foreign nationals that pose an undue risk of sabotage, unauthorized access, or other disruption to the US bulk-power system. In addition to restricting transactions after the effective date of the order, the order also contemplates the replacement of already-installed equipment, authorizing the secretary of energy to “impose conditions on the continued use, operation, maintenance, servicing, or updating of foreign manufactured or operated bulk-power system electric equipment acquired or installed before the date of this order.”
EO 14420 is directed at 24 countries currently on the United States’ arms embargo and sanctions lists under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and covers the following equipment:
Items used in bulk-power system substations, control rooms, or power generating stations, including reactors; capacitors; substation transformers; utility-scale and grid-connected inverters; battery energy storage systems; and uninterruptible power supply systems supporting critical infrastructure, current coupling capacitors, large generators, small generators, backup generators, substation voltage regulators, shunt capacitor equipment, automatic circuit reclosers, instrument transformers, coupling capacity voltage transformers, protective relaying, metering equipment, high voltage circuit breakers, generation turbines, industrial control systems (including remote terminal units, programmable logic controllers, and intelligent electronic devices), distributed control systems, and safety instrument systems.
The government may also act to bar the use of certain software and firmware.
Although EO 14420 has potentially large-scale implications for the nation, as stated in the White House fact sheet, the order does not apply to facilities used for local distribution of electric energy.
The DOE has 120 days to develop rules to implement EO 14420. Further, within 180 days of the effective date, the DOE, in consultation with the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, must develop and submit a set of recommended revisions to the Federal Acquisition Regulation.
While the order’s immediate focus is national security, the long-term goal is the onshoring of critical grid infrastructure. The order’s primary commercial target is China, which controls a significant percentage of global lithium-ion battery capacity and solar component capacity. As a result, these industries are likely to face significant supply pressures. Other procurement bottlenecks are also expected until there is sufficient onshoring of the equipment necessary for operating the utility grid as well as the equipment used in power plants and other generating facilities needed for electric system reliability.
Barclay Damon will monitor the implementation of EO 14420.
If you have any questions regarding the content of this alert, please contact Yvonne Hennessey, Environmental Practice Area chair, at yhennessey@barclaydamon.com; Thais Dombrowski, special counsel, at tdombrowski@barclaydamon.com; Dan Krzykowski, associate, at dkrzykowski@barclaydamon.com; or another member of the firm’s Environmental Practice Area.