DOE’s cooperative agreements will advance efforts to safeguard U.S. critical energy infrastructure from evolving and growing cyber threats.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As part of the Biden Administration's Electricity Subsector Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Cybersecurity Initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a total of $10M in funding to two electric trade associations–the American Public Power Association (APPA) and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)–to confront cyber threats from adversaries seeking to compromise the U.S. electric grid. This will aim to advance the Administration’s 100-day action plan to secure the U.S. energy grid.

“DOE’s trusted partnerships across the electricity complex are integral to ensuring and maintaining a reliable flow of energy across the country,” said Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) Puesh Kumar. “As we continue supporting the 100-day plan and taking action to protect and defend our critical infrastructure, we want to gain greater cyber threat visibility and develop longstanding relationships with the public utilities that power our homes and businesses.”

APPA represents the 2,000+ community-owned electric utilities and NRECA represents more than 900 rural cooperative electric utilities across the United States.

“Protecting the U.S. electric grid from threats is a top priority for public power and APPA,” said APPA President & CEO Joy Ditto. “We are grateful that DOE shares in this priority and continues to invest in the necessary technology to help safeguard electric utilities, which—quite literally—power every aspect of our American way of life.”

“Information sharing, technology development and coordination among industry and government partners are essential to strengthening electric sector cyber defenses,” said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. “Real-time visibility into what’s happening across several different systems is important to strengthen our cybersecurity capabilities and identify attacks in their infancy. Electric co-ops are appreciative of this funding that will help support the deployment of advanced technologies to stay ahead of cyber threats.” 

This funding will be critical in advancing cybersecurity to some of the country’s smaller electric utilities. Through the partnership with APPA and NRECA, utilities will deploy cyber monitoring technologies in their operational technology (OT) / ICS environments to provide near real-time situational awareness and response capabilities.

To learn more about Administration’s efforts in furtherance of the ICS Cybersecurity Initiative, please read DOE’s progress report on the first 100 days of the action plan.