Energy Department to Fund Emerging Technology-Focused Cybersecurity Efforts

The Department of Energy has announced that it will invest $45 million in 16 private and academic sector cybersecurity initiatives across six states.

Managed by the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response, the funding will catalyze the development of new capabilities to strengthen the cyber resilience of the power grid, electric utilities and other systems, the Energy Department said Monday.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm affirmed her organization’s commitment to hardening the U.S. energy sector against cyberthreats that could put citizens’ power access at risk. She said teams throughout the country will “develop innovative, next-generation cybersecurity solutions” to issues throughout the sector.

The Energy Department selected projects that utilize emerging technology such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The Palo Alto, California-based Electric Power Research Institute will create an artificial intelligence and data processing capability in response to cyber incidents at the grid edge.

Meanwhile, General Electric Research is expected to develop a quantum communication capability for transmitting time-sensitive coordination messages important to power grid resilience.