LENOX, Mass. – New England and New York power providers say they are vulnerable to future terrorist attacks but are trying to better protect themselves.

Aside from putting more security guards and barriers around power plants and substations, they say there must be greater emphasis on sharing information and coordinating responses in a power crisis.

“We think the threat of another attack is there, and terrorists will target power sources,” said Stephen Whitley, chief operating officer for ISO New England, which controls New England’s power grid. “Everyone is thinking of security differently now. And one of the most important things we need to do is make sure information is being shared.”

But that sharing must be done carefully, and will mean keeping more information about power sources secret, Whitley said.

“That detailed information has been out there to the world on maps and on the Internet,” Whitley said. “We need to gather that in and make it confidential.”

Whitley joined a group of power producers, distributors and regulators who gathered Wednesday to discuss how to best protect the power supply in New York and New England. The conference was organized by ISO New England and its neighboring counterpart, ISO New York.

Immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, power plants and distributors took quick steps to beef up security and guarantee energy, industry officials said.

For instance, more guards were placed at power generators, and routine maintenance work at power plants was stopped so those facilities could operate at their full potential.

But beyond those obvious responses, the companies and regulators responsible for the region’s power supply say internal changes are needed.

“We’ve stepped up surveillance of our substations and we’ve been developing a security plan for the company,” said Ian Wilson, a spokesman for Public Service of New Hampshire, which powers about 80 percent of the state. “But now it’s time to improve communication within our system and with other companies and government agencies.”

Wilson described the current system for alerting power companies about potential threats as a cumbersome network. Messages are passed from federal agencies to regional distributors to local utilities and law enforcement officials, he said.

“Each of those organizations has their own system for assessing threats,” he said. “We have to get a better handle on gathering and distributing intelligence.”

James Kallstrom, New York’s director of public security and the state’s former FBI chief, said security improvements for the region’s power supply are essential.

“Without power, you can’t run an infrastructure,” he said.

But all the improved security at power plants won’t matter much if more isn’t done to combat an infiltration of terrorists cells into the country, he said.

“It’s possible we could suffer another act of terrorism in the United States,” he said. “I think we’d be foolish to [think] that we could not. We have not secured our borders, we have not taken logical procedures to even know who comes into the United States.”

“We have basically a wide-open society that terrorists have taken advantage of,” he said.