Host Jon Powers recently interviewed Jonathon Monken, Principal of Converge Strategies, about the devastation taking place in Texas. Hear from an industry expert on how a polar vortex could cause this chain of disasters impacting power, water, and other major infrastructure. Learn about the failures that took place within the grid, and most importantly, how experts are planning for this to never happen again.
Read MoreJonathon Monken, Principal, Converge Strategies on Good Morning America explaining how cybersecurity best practices prevented a hacker from poisoning the water supply for the city of Oldsmar, Florida.
Read MoreFederal Energy Management Program (FEMP) 2020 FEDS Spotlight Recipients
2020 Annual Secretary of the Army Energy and Water Management Awards
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28 October Event: A Conversation With DoD Energy Leaders
29 October Event: DoD Services Panel: The Military’s Energy Resilience Program Update and Project Opportunities
Read MoreA team of leading resilience experts — RAND Corporation, Converge Strategies, LLC, XENDEE Corporation, and Ridgeline Energy Analytics — will support the town of West Tisbury and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in their planning and design of climate-resilient energy infrastructure. This community-level project is funded by the Baker-Polito Administration through the Clean Energy and Resiliency (CLEAR) program, launched by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC).
Read MoreLearn how the Veterans Advanced Energy Project is working to empower military veterans who understand the importance of the evolving energy landscape to our future security and prosperity.
Read MoreSpoiler Alert: Chapter 12 entitled “Mission Essential: Energy Resilience for the U.S. Department of Defense: The Role of Distributed Generation (DG) on Military Installations in the United States,” reviews the policies and laws that focus on DoD’s energy resilience evolution.
Read MoreThe Atlantic Council Global Energy Center hosted, Veterans Advanced Energy Week, where the focus of the fourth day was on “The Veteran Perspective.” The following veteran clean energy entrepreneurs and CEO’s discussed their trajectory from service to leadership in the energy sector during the Veteran CEO and Entrepreneur Panel that was sponsored by Truman Center for National Policy.
Read MoreConverge Strategies, LLC announced that Jonathon Monken has joined their Washington, DC team as a Principal. Jonathon has nearly twenty years of private and public sector experience within the national security, emergency preparedness, risk management, and energy resilience planning spheres.
Read MoreIn the midst of the modern world's greatest public health crisis, we must focus on keeping the lights on in our hospitals and medical care facilities.
Our ability to respond to and recover from the novel coronavirus pandemic also depends on critical infrastructure systems — electricity, water, communications — that we often take for granted. We must mitigate immediate risks that vulnerabilities to these systems pose for public health today and change the way we prioritize and invest in critical infrastructure in the future.
Read MoreIn this episode of Grid Geeks, Wilson Rickerson, Principal of Converge Strategies dives into what it means to value resiliency as a core component of the electric grid alongside host Sara Baldwin and Jonathon Monken, Senior Director, System Resiliency and Strategic Coordination for PJM Interconnection.
Read MoreThe current threat environment requires new approaches to power system resilience — but there are valid concerns about the costs to harden the grid.
At the same time, surging advanced energy markets are creating new technology options for energy resilience — even as they are re-shaping and disrupting the energy industry.
Read MoreIn partnership with MD5, the MERC Innovation Challenge seeks creative solutions that can be implemented now to minimize the damage and disruption of a future disaster and bring together a community of stakeholders with diverse interests in continuity of operations.
Read MoreOver the last two years, President Trump has made every effort to rescue America’s ailing coal industry, opening public lands to mining, weakening limits on pollution, and potentially eliminating protections for miners. It hasn’t worked. Utilities continue to shutter coal-fired power plants, and mining firms continue to shed workers.
Read MoreMissed Solar Power International and Energy Storage International in Anaheim this year? Experts Only hosted our podcast in front of a live audience to discuss the Economics of Microgrids with Miranda Ballentine (Constant Power), Sachu Constantine (Vote Solar), David Rubin (PG&E) and Mike Wu (Converge Strategies).
Read MoreRecent reports from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have alerted Americans to efforts by the Russian government to target critical American infrastructure networks, particularly within the energy sector. DHS and FBI reports detail the activities of several persistent and advanced Russian hacking units, which burrowed into utility company networks and, in at least one instance, gained access to a power plant’s critical controls.
The US military and its supporters understand the importance of resilient energy. With or without zombies.
Just last month, the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee encouraged the Department of Defense (DoD) to “prioritize funding for energy-related projects, including renewable energy projects, to mitigate risk to mission-critical assets and promote energy security and efficiency at military installations” in the report accompanying the 2019 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill. The committee highlighted how renewable energy and smart technology investments can “shield mission-critical operations from disruptions to the power grid.”
Read MoreLast month, Defense Secretary James Mattis called climate change a threat to America’s military capability when he submitted Senate testimony that unequivocally states climate change is a threat to America’s national security. In his testimony, Science Magazine reported, Mattis stressed that it was incumbent on the U.S. military to consider how changes like open-water routes in the thawing Arctic and drought in global trouble spots can pose challenges for troops and defense planners.
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