Energy Systems

energy system icon

The Energy sector powers every other critical infrastructure system and is critical to the delivery of essential services such as healthcare, and media, and is one of the underlying services that enables economy. Fundamentally, energy systems keep the lights on, buildings warm, food cool, vehicles moving, and information flowing.

Energy infrastructure consists of three main systems — electricity, oil, and natural gas.

  • Electric systems generally consist of power generation, transmission, and distribution systems connected to large regional power grids.
  • Oil and natural gas systems generally include production (mining and extraction), refining, storage, and distribution systems (pipelines and fuel terminals, railways, trucking, and marine vessels).

Energy infrastructure is geographically dispersed, often crossing multiple jurisdictional boundaries. Energy assets and systems can be owned by private, Federal, State, or local entities that serve the public. Systems may also be owned, operated, and used by specific energy consumers.

Dependencies

Virtually all other critical infrastructure systems depend on electricity to power their operations. Petroleum fuels and natural gas are also critical to a number of sectors, especially transportation, and are commonly used to power generators during power outages.

Energy systems themselves rely on services from transportation, information technology, communications, finance, water, and government infrastructure.

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