2025 Energy Resilience Roundtable for U.S. Territories, Alaska & Hawai‘i

Energy is an essential resource for everyday life, economic growth, and security, a fact that is never as apparent as when energy supplies are disrupted. Brief disruptions are inconvenient, but extended disruptions can be dangerous and even life threatening. For islands and remote communities disconnected from the bulk power grid, even minor disruptions can be difficult to weather, costly to restore and have lasting adverse impacts.

Energy reliability, resilience and affordability remain top priorities for all Governors, including for the seven Governors of the U.S. Territories, Alaska and Hawai'i. These territories and states are on the front lines of many salient natural hazards and cyber threats, facing the unique challenges that accompany geographic remoteness and proximity to nation-state adversaries like China.

Building off the successes from the inaugural 2024 Energy Resilience Roundtable, NGA reconvened cross-functional state and territory leaders in energy, homeland security and emergency management May 6-8 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This event featured Governor-designated teams from Alaska, Hawai'i, and all five U.S. territories: American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

NGA hosted this roundtable with generous support from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) and in close partnership with Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González-Colón and her staff. Also in attendance were officials from the U.S. Department of Energy Grid Deployment Office (GDO), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) who participated in the roundtable, lending their expertise to discussions.

Through a discussion-oriented forum, state and territory leaders explored a wide range of challenges and shared Governor-focused solutions to those challenges, including:

• Understanding key energy security threats and unique vulnerabilities for U.S. territories and states with remote and islanded communities,
• Optimizing energy resilience and threat mitigation solutions,
• Building community-level resilience for extended energy outages,
• Bolstering cybersecurity for energy systems and other critical infrastructure,
• Spurring investment in resilient energy infrastructure and
• Securing energy supplies for defense critical infrastructure.

More detailed discussion summaries and key findings follow.

Key takeaways

Challenge: Severe weather and extreme temperatures, cyber-attacks, and other threats to energy systems pose acute challenges to the U.S. territories, Alaska and Hawai'i.

Solutions:

• Partnerships with Defense Installations - Energy Security for Defense Critical Infrastructure: Strong relationships exist between territorial, Alaskan, and Hawaiian governments and the U.S. Department of Defense. Leveraging ongoing engagements and defense exercises can build trust between the states/territories and defense partners and aid in the identification of resilience needs in civilian infrastructure that will support the defense mission.
• Investing in grid-hardening and infrastructure resilience strategies: While much of the public attention devoted to grid resilience goes to large infrastructure projects (new generation and transmission, for example), territories and states are simultaneously focusing on tried-and-true methods like grid hardening, vegetation management and addressing deferred maintenance.
• State- and Territory-wide Coordination on Energy and Resilience Planning: Several states and territories have undertaken state- or territory-wide planning and coordination efforts around energy and resilience. Establishing a task force, like the Alaska Energy Task Force, or working closely with the energy utilities, like the Guam government and Guam Power Authority (GPA), allows for more deliberate planning, integration of federal programs and funding and boosts interagency coordination.

Challenge: Facing complex challenges, building community level resilience is a major priority for remote and islanded states and territories.

Solutions:

• Bolstering communications protocols in advance of emergencies: Near-instantaneous information is now a commodity that many have come to expect, so it is important that emergency responders and other state leaders communicate regularly and accurately with communities around preparedness and response. This involves advanced "blue sky" work to build the preparedness foundation prior to any disaster occurring. Including communications and messaging in tabletop exercises can foster improved emergency communications. There are multiple communications platforms that can be leveraged during energy emergencies. With uncertain impacts on telecommunications, it's important to have multiple communications tools to leverage.
• Strengthening relationships with key public and private stakeholders: In building partnerships with critical infrastructure owners/operators, full-scale or table-top exercises with federal support can often help strengthen relationships and identify gaps in response operations. Institutionalizing that partnership, so that it is not dependent on personal relationships, is another key factor for long-term success. Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) is critical to ensure that government and the private sector can adapt quickly to any changes in their environment and restore services faster. Information sharing across all levels of government, and between the private sector, is essential to identify threats quicker, which allows more time to harden systems and respond to potential challenges.

Challenge: Remote and islanded states and territories face a dual challenge of both reducing energy costs (energy affordability) while needing additional energy generation.

Solutions:

• Investments in Liquified Natural Gas (LNG): Several states and territories are considering investments in natural gas to increase resiliency and reduce reliance on volatile, expensive, and high-emitting fuels. On May 8, roundtable participants had the opportunity to tour the EcoElectrica liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal and generating facility. During this tour, participants learned about the process and experiences of developing an LNG terminal in Puerto Rico, compliance and safety regulations, and how Puerto Rico is utilizing LNG to meet emissions reductions and energy reliability goals.
• Investments in distributed generation and battery storage. Investments in distributed and localized generation assets can create new generation sources for islanded and remote communities that foster independence. Also on May 8, participants had the opportunity to visit the CIRO One solar farm on the southern side of Puerto Rico. Once interconnected, this utility-scale solar farm will provide 90 megawatts of generation to the Puerto Rican energy grid as well as reliability through battery energy storage system (BESS) which will provide 51.5 megawatts of storage capacity, effectively smoothing the system's load curve and allowing for power "generation" throughout the day and night.

Challenge: Cyber threats from malicious domestic and nation state actors pose a significant risk to remote and islanded states and territories.

Solutions:

• Bolstering cybersecurity for critical infrastructure: Building redundancy across critical infrastructure sectors is critical to minimizing disruptions and impacts. Remote and islanded states and territories are refining cybersecurity plans, ensuring that cybersecurity professionals engage with key critical infrastructure stakeholders, and exercise critical emergency operation plans.

Challenge: Due to their remote and islanded geographies, the U.S. territories, Alaska and Hawai'i face unique supply chain challenges that impact energy, security and resilience.

Solutions:

• Some territories and islanded/remote states are continuing to work with federal partners for BABA and Jones Act waivers, exemptions and alternate mechanisms.
• In March 2025, Crowley, a major shipping company, reflagged a shipping vessel to the United States to import LNG from Texas to Puerto Rico.

Each day of the roundtable culminated with territorial and state teams completing robust action plans - facilitated by National Governors Association experts - that will allow them to bring the best practices and solutions identified throughout the meeting back to their home state/territory and effectuate meaningful improvements for their communities. Each team created a plan that was tailored to the current needs of their state/territory. A few actions identified include:

• Increase statewide energy resilience planning and cross-agency coordination;
• Adopt an all-of-the above approach to energy generation and grid investments to prioritize near-term resilience and affordability;
• Focus more on pre-disaster mitigation and resilience efforts in addition to emergency response and
• Continue dialogue between the five territories, Alaska, and Hawai'i to allow for sharing best practices and coordinating effective solutions.

Participants also had the opportunity to explore the history of Puerto Rico. On May 6, Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González-Colón welcomed state, territory and federal roundtable participants at La Fortaleza, the historic Puerto Rico Governor's mansion, the longest occupied Governor's residence in the United States.

The 2025 Energy Resilience Roundtable for U.S. Territories, Alaska and Hawai'i provided a unique and impactful experience for collaboration among territorial and state leaders. Participants were able to engage in meaningful dialogue on shared energy challenges, identify solutions to those challenges, and collaborate on how to implement identified solutions within their own state or territory. These solutions will support Governors as they improve energy resiliency, energy security and work to reduce costs.