Keeping the power on and the mission moving
Energy resilience for growing government demands
Why it matters
- Essential government services depend on reliable energy, especially during disruptions
- Energy infrastructure must accommodate growing demand while withstanding changing threats
- Expanding AI and data centers adds pressure to shared energy systems
Resilient and reliable energy has always been critical for government operations. Energy reliability means consistently supplying power and fuel when needed. Energy resilience is the ability to prepare for disruptions, sustain essential operations, and recover when interruptions occur.
Today, federal agencies and military installations are increasingly dependent on electricity and gas to support national security, emergency response, scientific research, computing, communications, logistics, and other critical missions.
Federal agencies, such as the Department of War (DoW), Department of Energy (DOE), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), oversee large and complex energy infrastructure portfolios. From military installations and defense facilities to national laboratories, nuclear security sites, and Coast Guard and DHS facilities, these organizations depend on extensive energy infrastructure to sustain critical missions. Federal agencies are also exploring opportunities to modernize infrastructure, expand energy generation, and leverage federal land and private-sector investment to support emerging energy and computing requirements.
Why government energy resilience requires a system-wide view
At the same time, the energy infrastructure supporting these missions faces growing challenges.
Electricity and gas demand are increasing in many regions, existing infrastructure is aging, and extreme weather and cyber and physical threats continue to create risks. New generation, transmission, substations, transformers, and other critical electric and gas equipment can also require years to plan, procure, permit, and construct.
Addressing these challenges requires government organizations to understand the complete energy ecosystem supporting their missions and the challenges of integrating its components. This includes the utilities, generation, transmission systems, substations, and fuel supplies outside a facility or military installation, as well as on-site distribution, generation, energy storage, controls, and cybersecurity.
How mission requirements shape energy resilience planning
Resilience begins with the mission. What must continue to operate? How much energy do critical missions require? For how long? Where are the critical dependencies? What level of availability and reliability is required?
Power-system modeling, energy infrastructure assessments and engineering design, load analysis, utility coordination, and resilience testing and exercises can help answer these questions and establish priorities. These activities can also identify where existing infrastructure may constrain future mission growth before those constraints become operational problems. For military installations and federal campuses, this also means considering how energy requirements will evolve as missions expand, facilities modernize, and new equipment comes online. Planning for future demand alongside consideration of vulnerabilities can reduce the risk of costly redesigns and delays.
Connecting energy technologies, investment and operations
The resulting solutions will differ by mission, location, and site conditions. They may require utility infrastructure improvements, new or upgraded transmission and distribution systems, substations, microgrids, power generation, energy storage, advanced controls, and cybersecurity. Government organizations may also need to evaluate multiple implementation approaches, including research and development, direct investments in design, construction, and sustainment, utility partnerships, privatization agreements, energy performance contracts, power purchase agreements (PPAs), enhanced use leases (EULs), other transaction authorities, and other public-private delivery models.
These investments cannot be evaluated independently. Generation must connect to the electrical system. Storage and microgrids must interact with protection and controls. Utility capacity and interconnection requirements must be understood. Cybersecurity must be incorporated into increasingly connected energy systems. And ultimately, the complete system must be designed and tested against the mission it is intended to support. Operational exercises and commissioning also provide opportunities to verify that equipment, controls, and personnel respond as expected during a disruption. These systems engineering challenges require coordinated resilience planning.
As government operations become more technologically complex, energy infrastructure and resilience must become part of their mission.
How AI and data centers are changing energy demand
Artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and data centers are rapidly transforming energy infrastructure requirements across government and commercial markets.
The U.S. data center market was valued at approximately $121 billion in 2024 and has been projected to approach $358 billion by 2034. Some projections also indicate that data centers could account for a significant share of U.S. electricity load growth through 2030. Individual developments increasingly require hundreds of megawatts, with the largest proposed campuses approaching gigawatt-scale demand.
These developments create significant challenges for utilities, communities, federal facilities, and military installations competing for capacity on the same regional energy systems. AI computing loads can also fluctuate rapidly, creating additional requirements for power quality, system stability, controls, and resilient energy infrastructure.
Developing energy and data centers together on federal land
Federal agencies are exploring new approaches to developing data centers and energy infrastructure together. The DOE and DoW are evaluating opportunities to leverage federal land and infrastructure at national laboratories, DOE facilities, and military installations for privately financed, co-located energy generation and data center developments. Depending on the site and applicable authorities, these projects may use private capital investment, EULs, PPAs, and other public-private arrangements to support energy and computing infrastructure development.
These approaches can leverage private-sector financing and commercial development expertise while supporting federal missions, expanding energy capacity, and potentially strengthening surrounding utility infrastructure. Successful execution, however, requires aligning land-use authorities, financing structures, utility interconnections, energy supply agreements, mission requirements, and long-term operational responsibilities.
Integrated energy and data center development requires planning both assets as a single infrastructure investment. Site selection, generation capacity, transmission and distribution constraints, gas supply, electrical substations, energy storage, microgrids, cybersecurity, and future expansion must be evaluated alongside computing requirements.
How Leidos connects energy engineering and project delivery
Leidos Energy brings together commercial energy engineering, infrastructure development, and federal mission expertise to support these emerging opportunities. Working with financial institutions, private equity and infrastructure investors, utilities, developers, technology providers, and construction partners, Leidos can help assemble integrated project teams that bring together financing, design, construction, and long-term support for large-scale energy and data center infrastructure.
This approach allows technical solutions and commercial business models to be developed together. Depending on project requirements, delivery structures may incorporate private capital investment, EULs, PPAs, utility partnerships, and other financing mechanisms. By aligning engineering design, project economics, risk allocation, construction delivery, and long-term operating requirements, Leidos and its partners can help advance commercially viable, coordinated delivery models that meet federal mission needs.
Key takeaways
- Energy resilience planning starts with what must keep operating, for how long, and under which conditions.
- Energy and data center development requires coordinated planning across infrastructure, computing, financing, and operations.
- Leidos combines energy engineering and federal mission expertise to connect technical planning with project delivery.
