Energy Resilience is National Security: Why the Future Depends on Smart Infrastructure at the Grid Edge

In 2012, a cyberattack on a Saudi Arabian oil company, Aramco, wiped out 35,000 computers in a single day—one of the most destructive cyberattacks in history. The attackers didn’t target military systems; they went after the economy by crippling the energy sector. This event was a wake-up call: energy resilience isn’t just about keeping the lights on—it’s a matter of national security.

Since then, threats have only grown. In 2015, a cyberattack took down parts of Ukraine’s power grid, marking the first known instance of hackers causing a blackout. The U.S. hasn’t been immune either—foreign adversaries have infiltrated utility networks, raising concerns about potential future attacks. Meanwhile, physical threats remain a danger, as seen in the 2013 sniper assault on PG&E’s Metcalf substation in California. On top of these risks, extreme weather events, intensified by climate change, continue to expose the vulnerabilities of an aging grid.

The Modern Economy’s Dependence on Energy Resilience 

Let’s begin with something simple: a blackout is never just a blackout. In today’s highly electrified world, when the power goes out, so does everything else—communication, commerce, transportation, even defense. That’s why energy resilience—our ability to absorb, adapt to, and recover from disruptions in the electrical system—is no longer a technical nicety. It’s national security in its most modern form.

The most serious threats to the grid today aren’t enemy aircraft overhead—they’re silent, systemic, and often invisible: cyberattacks, extreme weather, and aging infrastructure stretched beyond design. When they strike, they hit not just the grid but everything that depends on it: data centers, water systems, hospitals, the economy itself.  For instance, in 2024, U.S. utilities experienced a 70% surge in cyberattacks compared to the previous year, underscoring the grid’s vulnerability and the pressing need for enhanced defenses. 

Electricity is no longer just one utility among many—it is the infrastructure that makes all other infrastructure possible.

Moreover, the operational readiness of the military is increasingly dependent on a stable electrical supply. As military operations transition away from fossil fuels toward electric-powered technologies, ensuring uninterrupted power becomes paramount for national defense capabilities.​

Energy resilience refers to the grid’s ability to:​

1. Withstand Major Disruptions: Whether due to cyberattacks, physical assaults, accidents, or natural disasters, a resilient grid can endure significant disruptions with minimal impact on consumers.​
   
2. Recover Swiftly: In the event of a blackout, a resilient system can restore power rapidly, reducing downtime and associated consequences.​
   

Given that many disruptions occur locally within the distribution network, enhancing resilience at the grid edge—closer to consumers—is crucial. This approach ensures that buildings, critical infrastructure, and even electric vehicles maintain power during adverse events or have power restored promptly.​

A resilient grid is foundational to the modern economy. Disruptions can lead to immediate hardships for individuals and businesses and have broader implications for a nation’s global standing. For example, the 2025 fire at an electrical substation near Heathrow Airport led to a nearly 24-hour closure, affecting around 200,000 passengers and causing an estimated £20 million in daily losses for the aviation sector. 

Most grid failures happen on the distribution level—not because of the physics of electrons, but because of the physics of bureaucracy and outdated infrastructure. So if we want resilience, we must build systems that live at the edge: close to where power is needed, able to operate independently, and smart enough to adapt in real-time.

This brings us to a long-standing flaw in our grid design. For decades, our energy infrastructure has centered around large, centralized power plants, transmitting electricity over hundreds of miles. But this system has a glaring weakness: if a power plant or a key transmission line fails, entire regions can go dark. That’s why the future of resilience lies in local microgrids and distributed energy systems. These systems, often equipped with energy storage, can operate independently—a capability known as islanding. When they’re equipped with “islanding” capabilities, they can decouple from the larger system and keep the lights on for critical infrastructure—hospitals, fire stations, military bases—when everything else is dark.

Electricfish : Pioneering Resilient Energy Infrastructure

At ElectricFish, this is precisely the problem we’ve set out to solve. Our grid-edge infrastructure combines energy storage, high-speed EV charging, and intelligent software in a compact, modular unit. During normal conditions, it acts like a pressure valve—smoothing demand, storing excess renewable energy, and boosting reliability. During outages, it becomes an autonomous power source. We call it resilience on demand.

But the real magic isn’t just in the hardware—it’s in the intelligence. Our platform uses machine learning to predict usage spikes, optimize battery cycles, and react instantly to disruptions. It’s not just reactive; it’s anticipatory. This is infrastructure that thinks.

And the implications go far beyond uptime. When you decentralize energy, you reduce dependency on global supply chains and fragile transmission infrastructure. You build redundancy into the system by design. You create local energy independence—not as a slogan, but as a practiced reality. That’s not just a better grid. That’s a safer country.

The future of national security will be measured not just in troop strength or GDP, but in kilowatts delivered when it matters most. ElectricFish is building the systems to make that possible—resilient, intelligent, distributed power at the grid edge. By embracing distributed solutions and pioneering technologies, we can build a grid that’s as resilient as the nation it powers.

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