Power supply still a vexation for the NSA

Summertime could pose hotter trouble for agency

WASHINGTON // A year after the National Security Agency nearly maxed out its electrical capacity, some offices are experiencing significant power disruptions as the agency confronts the increasingly urgent problem of an infrastructure stretched to its limits, intelligence officials said.

The spy agency has delayed the deployment of some new data-processing equipment because it is short on power and space. Outages have shut down some offices in NSA headquarters for up to half a day. And some officials fear that major problems could occur this summer as temperatures climb.


The NSA has been working to develop and implement short- and long-term plans to ensure a steady supply of electricity to the nation’s largest intelligence agency; they range from creating rapid-response teams to revamping power substations, internal documents show.

The current shortage has been projected for nearly a decade. Some of the rooms that house the NSA’s enormous computer systems were not designed to handle newer computers that generate considerably more heat and draw far more electricity than their predecessors.

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