While today marks the last day of National Preparedness Month, preparedness underpins everything we do in CESER. Whether it’s embedding cybersecurity into emerging renewable technologies or conducting regular tactical preparedness exercises across government and industry, we are continuously preparing the nation to effectively mitigate any threats - cyber or physical -and building resilience to ensure the U.S. energy supply that millions of Americans rely on every day is not disrupted.
For us, it’s about maintaining a constant state of readiness and resilience. This is especially challenging in the energy sector where the impacts of climate change and the capabilities of our adversaries are continuously evolving. That’s why we are always tracking what’s going on in the energy sector, leveraging DOE’s expertise across the agency and our 17 national labs to monitor weather patterns, trace cyber activity, and assess risk. This awareness - and information sharing with partners like CISA and FBI - means that CESER can utilize and share timely guidance, training, and exercises that advance the U.S. energy sector’s ability to respond and recover to any incident. A prime example is the Electricity Subsector Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Cybersecurity Initiative launched in April by DOE and partners aimed at accelerating the visibility of threats to the systems that control the nation’s utility operations to improve detection, mitigation, and response.
A key element of energy preparedness is ensuring response and recovery procedures are in place for hurricanes, wildfires, petroleum shortages, energy-focused cyber-attacks - or any other hazard that could potentially disrupt the energy sector. Through risk-based energy security planning, states and local communities can build partnerships and policy to improve energy system resilience, conduct more efficient and effective emergency response, and mitigate -or even avoid - disruptions to energy infrastructure during an emergency. That’s why since our inception, we’ve hosted more than 800 practitioners in annual all-hazards and cyber exercises like Clear Path and Liberty Eclipse, which walk participants through realistic incident scenarios. The lessons learned from these exercises are translated into new or updated operational and strategic plans and mitigative measures like community microgrid development, backup generation along evacuation routes, and mutual aid networks.
Preparedness will always be front-of-mind for us. With the climate crisis intensifying, evolving grid assets, and rising adversarial threats, we need to be extra vigilant. This year’s theme for National Preparedness Month was “Disasters Don’t Wait." CESER can’t wait either - as we move forward, we will continue prioritizing preparedness in our work and investing in cutting-edge solutions to secure the nation’s infrastructure.
Learn more about CESER’s preparedness and response activities.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response
