🌐 Microgrids & DERs: The Cyber–Energy–Climate Nexus: Risk, Resilience, and Innovation
In the energy transition, cyber isn’t adjacent to climate. It is becoming foundational to it.
Terms like energy resilience and energy security once referred primarily to physical infrastructure, supply, and reliability. Today, they carry a very different meaning. As energy systems become more distributed, digitized, and interconnected, the risk landscape is shifting from physical disruptions to cyber-physical threats that can cascade across entire communities.
This shift is especially acute in smaller and regional areas, where critical energy infrastructure is rapidly evolving but local cyber expertise and resources often lag behind. The result is a growing imbalance. Communities are increasingly exposed to risks they have limited ability to detect, manage, or respond to.
This session explores this emerging frontier where cyber, energy, and climate converge. Drawing on global experience across distributed energy systems, we will examine how the definition of resilience is changing, how vulnerabilities are expanding, and what it will take to secure the next generation of climate-driven infrastructure.
Speaker: Vish Ganti, President and COO, DERSec
Vish Ganti is the President and COO of DERSec, where he leads the development of security solutions for distributed energy resources and critical infrastructure. He has worked on virtual power plant deployments across more than 20 countries, gaining firsthand insight into both the promise and fragility of modern energy systems.
Through this work, Vish has observed a defining shift. As energy systems decentralize, the command, control, and coordination layers are becoming increasingly centralized, introducing new systemic risks.
Today, his focus is on securing the intersection of cybersecurity, energy systems, and climate resilience, ensuring that as the grid evolves, it remains reliable, secure, and equitable for all communities.
We are not just building a cleaner grid. We are building a more exposed one. The question is whether we can secure it in time.
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This ongoing series blends short talks, project shares, and group discussions with plenty of time to connect. Sessions vary each time, and are facilitated by Eric Bastoul and Liam O'Brien.
Here’s a typical flow:
Mingling, Name Tags + Snacks
Welcome + Intros
20 min talk (topic varies each session)
🛠️ Small Group Chats – what technologies are you experimenting with? Where are you getting stuck? What trends or partnerships are you tracking?
Open Networking to help connect participants with shared interests
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This is a 🌐 9Zero Cluster Meetup, topic-specific groups led by subject matter experts. With in-person meetups and online tools, they help 9Zero members meet others in their area of interest.