DUESSELDORF, Germany, March 12 (Reuters) -

German policymakers should team up with power grid operators

to improve the response to incidents such as the arson attack

near Tesla's gigafactory, said the head of regional

utility Westenergie.

Security measures needed reviewing and a better legal

framework created, Westenergie's chief executive Katherina

Reiche told reporters in Duesseldorf.

"Critical infrastructure is vulnerable," said Reiche, whose

subsidiary Westnetz dealt with restoring power to tens of

thousands of households in western Germany after flooding in

2021.

But the response to deliberate and targeted actions by

humans needs a rethink, she added.

In the Tesla case, far-left activities from the Vulkangruppe

claimed responsibility for the attack that caused a week-long

outage at its Gruenheide factory in the state of Brandenburg.

"It is probably not possible to protect such a network to a

100% degree at all times," Reiche said, adding that gas and

telecommunications intersections were also exposed to attacks.

Transparency rules requiring grid operators to make their

infrastructure data publicly available might be in need of

review, she said, as they could potentially identify and provide

pointers to where to find targets.

The outage at Gruenheide began on March 5, also affecting

households in the region.

The Tesla plant was reconnected to the power grid late on

Monday by eastern German grid operator E.dis, where personnel

had worked in three-shift mode to ensure a quick restoration of

supply.

Both Westenergie and E.dis belong to utility group E.ON.