CESER Announces Securing ENergy Technology ResiliencY (SENTRY) Award Recipients

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) announced Securing ENergy Technology ResiliencY (SENTRY) award recipients—Frenos, Raptor Dynamix, and Bastazo.

SENTRY is a project within DOE that aligns with key Trump Administration efforts to enhance the security and resilience of the U.S. energy infrastructure. The initiative addresses challenges with energy risk quantification, industrial control system (ICS) cybersecurity, decentralized asset management system cybersecurity, and counter-drone capabilities.

SENTRY funding is being distributed to three innovative tech startups:

• Frenos is developing an automated adversary emulation framework designed to integrate adversarial AI with energy sector threat intelligence. The framework automatically translates generic threat intelligence into energy-specific attack chains, executes realistic adversary scenarios across substations and distributed energy resources (DER) systems, and provides prioritized remediation guidance based on validated attack paths.
• Raptor Dynamix is developing Grid Guardian, a cost-effective counter unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to detect, classify, and defeat drones threatening critical energy infrastructure. Once a threat is confirmed, Grid Guardian employs layered mitigation options, including directional radio frequency disruption and an autonomous interceptor drone, all coordinated through a single command-and-control interface tailored for utility operators. 
• Bastazo is developing a Cyber-Informed Engineering Risk Quantification Framework (CIE-RQF) that connects an organization’s cybersecurity posture to measurable operational impacts using AI-driven analytics, engineered controls, and utility-validated modeling. The framework will combine National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework and Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model maturity data with operational technology attack-path analysis and reliability indicators such as System Average Interruption Duration Index and System Average Interruption Frequency Index to generate actionable, utility-specific risk insights that highlight the role of engineered controls and guide strategic investment, risk reduction, and site-specific remediation planning.

This project is managed by ConnectWerx in partnership with DOE and made possible through an innovative Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) set up by the DOE's Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC).