October is National Energy Awareness Month, our annual national effort to highlight the importance of energy to our national prosperity and security. Energy, especially electric power, is the lifeline infrastructure for the modern U.S. economy. Beyond just lighting, heating, and cooling our buildings, electricity also protects health by powering emergency response and modern medical care in hospitals. Critical sanitation and clean water systems rely on electricity. The digital sector relies on the absence or presence of electricity in trillions of circuits. Production and delivery of transportation fuels relies on pumping and refining powered by electricity. Manufacturing requires high-quality, uninterrupted electric power to deliver products.

Electricity is woven into every inch of America’s economic fabric, and it is continuously transmitted on the electric grid, the world’s largest machine. Yet the grid is facing an unprecedented era of technological innovation and change. Natural hazards and weather events - as well as cyber and physical attacks on the grid - continue to increase in frequency and impact.

Here at the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity (OE), we harness innovation to develop a stronger, more resilient, and more reliable North American energy system, while maintaining our energy independence and dominance.

The improvement and protection of our electric grid system is an essential national security priority, and the Office of Electricity provides national leadership to ensure that the nation’s energy grid is secure, resilient and reliable. Energy, our most critical infrastructure, is all but invisible to most, but our focus on continued innovation protects American lives today and ensures better lives tomorrow.