DOE announces $12M to enhance cybersecurity of U.S. energy systems

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it would provide $12 million for six new projects to develop innovative cybersecurity technology to protect America’s power grid.

The research, development and demonstration (RD&D) projects would ensure energy delivery systems are designed, installed, operated, and maintained in ways they will survive and recover quickly from cyberattacks. Protecting the power grid is a crucial goal of the department, the DOE said, as is providing cleaner and cheaper power to the country while advancing a goal of a 100 percent clean electrical grid by 2035 and zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“Investing in cutting-edge cyber security technology keeps us at the forefront of global innovation and protects America’s power grid in the face of increasing cyber threats from abroad,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. “This funding will bolster our commitment to a secure and resilient clean energy future by fortifying American electricity systems and building a stronger grid.”

The DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER) will fund teams at six universities to perform cybersecurity RD&D in three different areas – advance anomaly detection, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and physics-based analytics. The goal of the RD&D would be to strengthen the security of next-generation energy systems, the department said. These systems include components placed in substations to detect cyber intrusions more quickly and automatically block access to control functions.

“As the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, no issue keeps me up at night more than our nation’s cyber vulnerabilities — especially those that may exist within the critical infrastructure sectors that power our nation. I’m thrilled to see these federal dollars go towards supporting Virginia Tech in developing cutting-edge tools to strengthen the cyber defenses of our electric power systems,” said U.S. Senator Mark Warner (VA).

CERES said it awarded $2 million to Florida International University and its partners, North Carolina State University (NCSU); University of North Carolina (UNC); Raytheon Technologies Research Center (RTRC); and Duke Energy, to develop artificial intelligence-based detection tools and to design effective cyber threat mitigation strategies. Also awarded were $2 million to Iowa State University and its partners University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP); Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI); Duke Energy; Alliant Energy; Google; OSISoft; and SEL, for a project to enable defense-in-depth security and resilience for cyber-physical systems using AI-integrated, attack resilient, and proactive system technologies and solutions.

Also awarded were:
• New York University and its partners SRI International; New York Power Authority; and Consolidated Edison, who will receive $1.94 million to develop a program called Tracking Real-time Anomalies in Power Systems (TRAPS) to detect and localize anomalies in power grid cyber-physical systems;
• Texas A&M engineering Experiment Station and its partners Rutgers University; Oregon State University; Network Perception; TDi Technologies; PSC Consulting; and Electric Power Engineers, who will receive $1.99 million for a project leveraging AI and machine learning to develop techniques and scalable prototypes for intrusion response against power system cyber threats;
• The University of Illinois at Chicago and its partners Iowa State University; University of Arkansas; Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT); Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI); NextWatt LLC; Eaton; and ENER-I, who will receive $2 million for a project to develop a resilient, next generation solid-state power substation, integrating cybersecurity considerations; and
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and its partners University of Michigan-Dearborn; Southern Company Services; and GW Grid Solutions LLC, who will receive $1.99 million for a program called Cyber Resilience of SubsTations (VREST), a two-part system to detect and mitigate cyber incidents.