Energy Dept. funds infrastructure resilience, cybersecurity projects

The Energy Department Tuesday is giving awards worth as as much as $50 million to its national laboratories for energy infrastructure resilience and cybersecurity projects.

The department said hurricanes Harvey and Irma have reinforced the importance of federal funding to protect energy infrastructure, including the electric grid, pipelines and refineries.

“As round-the-clock efforts continue to help communities recover from the devastation of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the need to continue strengthening and improving our electricity delivery system to withstand and recover from disruptions has become even more compelling,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a statement.

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“By leveraging the world-class innovation of the national laboratories and their partners, this investment will keep us moving forward to create yet more real-world capabilities that the energy sector can put into practice to continue improving the resilience and security of the country’s critical energy infrastructure.”

Seven of the funded projects are part of an electric grid resilience program. It’s focused on developing systems and models to better integrate new electricity technologies like renewable power into grids while maintaining resilience, the department said.

The remaining 20 projects are focused on cybersecurity across the electricity, oil and natural gas sectors.