A sweeping yet vaguely worded national emergency declaration targeting Chinese grid tech could put gigawatts of grid battery projects on uncertain legal ground.
By Jeff St. John, Canary Media, September 10, 2026
The Trump administration’s vaguely worded executive order on grid cybersecurity threatens to slow down the booming U.S. energy storage market.
The order, issued late last month, declares a national security emergency over the risk that foreign-made technologies could be used to hack into and disrupt the U.S. power grid. To combat this threat, the order bans the “acquisition, importation, transfer, or installation of any foreign-produced bulk-power system electric equipment.”
These restrictions apply to any transactions “initiated” on or after Aug. 26, when the order was issued. But they may also be retroactive: The order gives federal agencies the power to force utilities or energy project owners to “identify, isolate, monitor, secure, disconnect, replace, or remove such equipment” that’s already been installed.
While the order isn’t aimed only at batteries — it includes a range of other grid equipment and the communications devices and control software that manages them — it’s the battery market that will potentially be the most affected.
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