DOE lays down US$45 million funding plan to make American energy systems secure, resilient, reliable

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced Wednesday a US$45 million funding opportunity announcement (FOA) that creates, accelerates, and tests technology to protect the electric grid from cyber-attacks. The move will support six proposed topic areas for projects that will help make American energy systems secure, resilient, and reliable, apart from seamlessly helping deploy clean and cheap energy to Americans. 

The DOE said that cyber threats to American energy systems could shut down critical energy infrastructure and disrupt the energy supply, the economy, and the health of American consumers. 

Through DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER), the FOA will fund up to 15 new research, development, and demonstration projects to advance cybersecurity tools and technologies designed to reduce cyber risks and protect the nation’s energy sector. The funding will also strengthen existing partnerships with energy sector utilities, vendors, universities, national laboratories, and service providers working toward resilient energy delivery systems.

The funding opportunity aligns with U.S. President Joe Biden’s commitment to environmental justice. Therefore, applicants are highly encouraged to include individuals from groups historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math on their project teams.

“As DOE builds out America’s clean energy infrastructure, this funding will provide the tools for a strong, resilient, and secure electricity grid that can withstand modern cyberthreats and deliver energy to every pocket of America,” Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy, said in a media statement. “DOE will use this investment to continue delivering on the Biden Administration’s commitment to making energy cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable.” 

The DOE said that the additional grid upgrades funded in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act provide the U.S. with an opportunity to build greater cyber defenses in the energy sector. “Today’s funding will support up to 15 research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) projects that will focus on developing new cybersecurity tools and technologies designed to reduce cyber risks for energy delivery infrastructure. Building strong and secure energy infrastructure across the country is a key component of reaching President Biden’s goal of a net-zero carbon economy by 2050,” it added.

CESER’s effort will lead to the creation of next-generation tools and technologies designed to reduce cyber incident disruption to energy delivery. Researchers will aim to develop tools and technologies that enable energy systems to recognize a cyberattack, attempt to prevent it autonomously, and automatically isolate and eradicate it without disrupting energy delivery. Cybersecurity remains a priority as clean energy technologies deployed on the grid become highly automated.

The six proposed topic areas for the projects include automated cyberattack prevention and mitigation, focusing on tools and technologies that enable energy systems to recognize and prevent cyberattacks from disrupting energy autonomously. It will also bring about security and resiliency by design focusing on tools and technologies that build cybersecurity and resilience features into technologies through a cybersecurity-by-design approach.

CESER will also address authentication mechanisms for energy delivery systems, concentrating on tools and technologies that strengthen energy sector authentication. Additionally, it will direct attention to automated methods to discover and mitigate vulnerabilities using tools and technologies that address vulnerabilities in energy delivery control system applications. 

The project will also work on cybersecurity through advanced software solutions that look at developing software tools and technologies that can be tested in a holistic testing environment that includes a development feedback cycle. It will also integrate new concepts and technologies with the existing infrastructure, calling upon applicants to partner with energy asset owners and operators. Finally, the move works on validating and demonstrating cutting-edge cybersecurity technology that can be retrofitted into existing infrastructure.

Apart from the FOA, CESER will issue several public announcements this year regarding Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded projects and programs geared toward securing the nation’s electrical grid that align with President Biden’s clean energy plan. In addition, the agency has recently published updates around the CESER’s Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (C2M2) Version 2.1 free and voluntary resource designed to help companies evaluate their cybersecurity capabilities and optimize their security investments. 

This was preceded by the agency’s National Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) Strategy, which looks at guiding the efforts of the energy sector to incorporate cybersecurity practices into the design life cycle of engineered systems to reduce cyber risk. The CIE Strategy is a shift away from the prevailing structure, where the cybersecurity for most critical infrastructure control systems is addressed separately from system design and engineering. 

The DOE announced in April funding of $12 million to support six University-led projects that are set to enhance cybersecurity within American energy systems, to support the U.S. Administration’s commitment to safeguarding critical infrastructure and advancing the energy sector’s cybersecurity capabilities nationwide. The Universities involved in the proposed project include Florida International University, Iowa State University, New York University, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Anna Ribeiro

Industrial Cyber News Editor. Anna Ribeiro is a freelance journalist with over 14 years of experience in the areas of security, data storage, virtualization and IoT.