The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response published its first five-year strategic plan for fiscal years 2026 to 2030, outlining a roadmap to strengthen the security and resilience of the U.S. energy sector. With three goals, the ‘CESER Strategic Plan Fiscal Years 2026 to 2030’ plan emphasizes priorities such as advancing American energy dominance and hardening critical infrastructure against an increasingly complex and evolving threat landscape, while reaffirming CESER’s core mission to protect and secure the nation’s energy systems.
CESER’s targeted priorities and expert capabilities enable it to deliver timely, actionable information to industry partners, helping the energy sector stay ahead of emerging threats. This emphasis on communication and collaboration underpins its three strategic goals. CESER’s Strategic Plan aligns with and implements President Trump’s Cyber Strategy for America, including through pillars four, five, and six to secure critical infrastructure, sustain superiority in critical and emerging technologies, and build talent and capacity.
CESER aims to develop world-class security technologies by partnering with utilities to create practical and scalable solutions that protect energy infrastructure. It is also focused on hardening U.S. energy infrastructure through the implementation of cybersecurity measures to prevent disruptions, strengthening physical security, and developing recovery capabilities to restore operations after incidents. In addition, CESER plays a central role in responding to and recovering from incidents as the lead U.S. government coordinating agency for the energy sector during emergencies, supporting preparedness and response efforts for natural disasters, physical attacks, and cyber incidents.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, DOE is focused on building a more affordable, reliable, and secure energy system for the American people,” Alex Fitzsimmons, Acting Under Secretary of Energy and CESER Director, said in a Wednesday media statement. “The CESER Strategic Plan reflects the Department’s commitment to provide timely and actionable information to the energy sector, develop world-class security technologies, harden U.S. energy infrastructure, and respond and recover from incidents. Together with our industry partners, we can protect critical energy infrastructure from emerging threats and usher in a Golden Era of American Energy Dominance.”
The CESER Strategic Plan establishes the framework to implement federal programs that support the U.S. energy sector and strengthen its resilience. CESER plays a central federal role in coordinating with industry to manage security risks and ensure reliable delivery of electricity nationwide. Its planning is shaped by an increasingly complex threat landscape spanning multiple domains.
Cyber threats encompass breaches of digital control systems and networks, operational disruptions, data exfiltration, malware, ransomware, and denial-of-service attacks. Economic pressures such as market volatility, underinvestment, aging infrastructure, regulatory uncertainty, workforce shortages, and supply chain disruptions further strain the sector. At the same time, geopolitical factors, including international conflicts, civil unrest, political instability, and trade disputes, continue to influence the stability and security of energy systems and supply chains.
CESER’s guiding principle is to provide timely and actionable information to the energy sector. This principle underpins all three strategic goals and reflects the agency’s focus on delivering consistent, accurate, and relevant intelligence to help the sector effectively address evolving threats.
By prioritizing information sharing, CESER aims to strengthen collaboration with the energy industry, building enduring partnerships focused on reducing risk exposure and protecting critical infrastructure and supply chains. CESER-sponsored programs actively engage energy owners and operators, enabling them to respond more effectively to both current and emerging threats.
To support this, CESER is focused on developing actionable, energy-specific threat intelligence products and evaluating the effectiveness of its advisories for strategic partners. It is also expanding monitoring of hardware and software vulnerabilities across energy supply chains to enhance cybersecurity, operational planning, and overall resilience. In addition, CESER is working to clarify expectations for strategic partnerships and conduct regular evaluations to ensure capacity, accountability, and continuity.
Leveraging advances in operational technologies, CESER is enhancing its analysis and reporting capabilities to improve the security, reliability, and efficiency of critical infrastructure. Through ongoing collaboration with energy partners, including Power Marketing Administrations, the agency continues to test and deploy technologies to strengthen the sector’s defenses.
CESER maintains four core capabilities that support its guiding principle and are critical to federal, industry, and state, local, tribal, and territorial partners. These capabilities create structured environments for sharing threat intelligence, identifying risks, and addressing challenges as they emerge.
The Energy Threat Analysis Center serves as a central intelligence hub where government, industry, and stakeholders collaborate to analyze sensitive information and sustain energy system operations under both normal and degraded conditions. The Cyber Testing for Resilient Industrial Control Systems initiative focuses on supply chain security by identifying vulnerabilities in commonly used energy system components, enabling manufacturers and energy companies to mitigate risks. The Cybersecurity Risk Information Sharing Program provides a sensor-based monitoring solution that helps detect and understand threats across the energy sector.
The CESER Strategic Plan also advances its mission through strategic partnerships with public and private sector organizations to identify and mitigate threats and vulnerabilities. This includes leading federal engagement with the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council and the Oil and Natural Gas Subsector Coordinating Council, whose members include critical infrastructure owners, operators, and industry leaders focused on security and resilience.
CESER further extends its efforts through international programs that share energy security expertise with global partners and allies, as well as through collaboration with state, local, tribal, and territorial entities to support energy security planning, emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. In addition, CESER works closely with regional energy emergency coordinators to review energy security plans and participate in critical information-sharing efforts.
Under its first goal, the CESER Strategic Plan said that it is focused on developing world-class security technologies to support the energy sector. A central priority is advancing cutting-edge, practical, and scalable solutions in collaboration with utilities and oil and gas companies. CESER subject matter experts work closely with industry partners to design technologies that protect infrastructure, systems, and supply chains in real-time threat environments.
These efforts are guided by the need to anticipate the evolution of increasingly interconnected energy systems, with the aim of improving resilience, security, and affordability.
To support this goal, CESER plans to issue a research, development, and demonstration roadmap outlining its technology investments and to conduct quarterly progress reviews of approved projects. It also aims to accelerate these efforts to deliver at least two new technology solutions each year for private sector adoption over the next five years. In addition, CESER is working to increase the return on investment of its technology initiatives by establishing a formal requirements process.
Under its second goal, the CESER Strategic Plan is focused on hardening U.S. energy infrastructure to improve resilience for American communities and strengthen national security. The agency provides technical assistance to accelerate innovation across hardware, software, and equipment, helping protect critical energy systems from a wide range of threats.
This effort includes implementing cybersecurity measures to safeguard digital systems and networks that, if compromised, could disrupt operations and trigger cascading failures. It also involves strengthening physical security through measures such as reinforcing power lines, deploying counter-UAS capabilities, and upgrading critical facilities. In addition, CESER is developing prototypes to support effective recovery from disruptions, including backup power systems, emergency communications, and redundant energy sources.
To advance this goal, CESER plans to rank and harden defense-critical energy infrastructure within two years, including both primary and auxiliary suppliers to key defense sites. The agency will also provide direction and technical assistance to federal and industry partners to deploy cyber and physical security upgrades at priority locations within the same timeframe. Additionally, CESER aims to establish and implement an annual baseline for energy security training and exercises, while publishing consolidated lessons learned and best practices each year for industry and state, local, tribal, and territorial stakeholders.
When it comes to its third goal, the CESER Strategic Plan focuses on responding to and recovering from incidents as the lead U.S. government coordinating agency for the energy sector during emergencies. This role includes advancing emergency preparedness and developing capabilities to ensure response readiness.
When natural disasters, physical attacks, or cyber incidents occur, CESER works to minimize disruptions and maintain reliable energy delivery. It coordinates resource recovery efforts and provides immediate advisories on the status of energy systems. CESER also has the authority to issue emergency orders and approve fuel standard waivers when necessary to sustain power and fuel supply. Within a unified response framework, CESER delivers technical assistance and engineering expertise to energy providers and affected communities to support effective response and recovery.
