Rethinking Energy Security: Building a Resilient Future in a Renewable World
This article is based on a discussion between Paul Domjan and Sulaiman Ilyas-Jarrett for the Energy Revolution podcast, aired in August 2025.
In a world defined by geopolitical shocks and rapid technological change, the question of energy security has never felt more urgent. For decades, nations have equated energy security with control over oil and gas—resources that are prone to political leverage and subject to volatile global market prices. But as former energy security advisor to NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, and ENODA Founder and Chief Policy & Global Affairs Officer, Paul Domjan argues, the very foundations of our energy system are shifting. True security now lies not in stockpiling fossil fuels, but in designing an electricity system, and indeed a wider energy system, capable of sustaining and stabilising a world powered by renewables.
From Oil Fields to Renewables: A Strategic Evolution
Energy security once meant ensuring tankers reached port, pipelines stayed open and strategic reserves of oil and gas were maintained and available. During my tenure advising the US European Command and NATO, I observed the fragility of that model firsthand. It was then that I realised that the only truly secure energy system would be one that is built on renewables because they are the only resource that can deliver energy at scale, across the alliance without reliance on imports or volatile international prices.
But there was a paradox here. Renewable electricity—unlike oil or gas—is inherently inflexible. The system we inherited from the 19th century, designed by pioneers like Nicola Tesla, George Westinghouse and William Stanley, was never built for fluctuating solar and wind, nor for the demand volatility introduced by electrification of transport, heat and industry, which is also necessary for renewable electricity to deliver energy security. This leaves us facing a structural challenge: renewables promise security, but our grids cannot yet deliver it.
The task, then, is not just to generate clean power, but to rebuild the architecture of energy itself. Indeed, the wholesale of clean power continues to fall, but the cost of system stability pushes up the cost of energy to households and industry. This means the rollout of renewable generation and electrification of demand is hampered by the capacity and capabilities of the legacy grid.
Lessons from Europe: Overestimating Leverage
The war in Ukraine revealed how energy dependence shapes geopolitics. Europe’s reliance on Russian gas—born of the belief that “they need our demand as much as we need their supply”—proved dangerously naïve. In fact, Russia was able to pick off individual European countries as the EU did not speak as a whole on energy, while the EU was genuinely reliant on a single supplier. Each of the many times Moscow has weaponised energy since 2006, European unity fractured.
What followed Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a crash course in hard reality—a crash course that Europe had plenty of times to learn in earlier disputes with Russia—economic interdependence does not automatically translate into political leverage. Europe found itself funding both sides of the war – Russia’s war machine via oil and gas purchases, and Ukraine’s resistance with military aid.
Having said that, I believe progress is still being made. The synchronisation of the Ukrainian and Baltic grids with the EU grid has dramatically improved the resilience of the electricity systems of these frontline states. The European Union’s plan to phase out Russian hydrocarbons by 2027 signals a deliberate, organised retreat from vulnerability. The deeper lesson is that energy security cannot be achieved through dependence, even on stable partners—it must be built on systemic resilience and flexibility.
Designing a Secure System for the 21st Century
Tomorrow’s secure energy system must be electric, flexible, and distributed, enabling individuals to actively participate in stabilising and securing the energy system. It can no longer rely on a few central power plants, but must utilise countless distributed resources—solar panels, batteries, and advanced technologies for demand management—that together sustain a stable frequency across the grid and enable rapid response to threats to the energy system.
Ultimately, the goal is to maintain the stability of the AC waveform that all electricity consumers share. This vision turns the traditional model on its head: on a bright day, power generators might pay consumers to use electricity. Devices that help stabilise the grid—by smoothing fluctuations or supporting frequency—would be rewarded for their contribution.
Achieving this requires a complete shift in mindset. Energy security will no longer depend on redundancy and overbuilding, but on intelligence and flexibility—on systems that adapt in real time rather than resist change.
Flexibility, Innovation, and Inclusion
Flexibility, is the foundation of future energy security. Instead of relying on expensive physical infrastructure, we must develop software-driven networks enabled by advanced, dispatchable energy hardware that are capable of self-stabilising from within.
That vision underpins our work at ENODA: developing a fundamentally new energy infrastructure that stabilises power flow in real time—without forcing consumers to alter their behaviour. People shouldn’t have to suffer for the system to work. Your kettle should boil the same way every day, even as the grid balances itself behind the scenes.
It’s a quiet revolution. Instead of demanding conscious sacrifices from millions of consumers, technology can now create a background layer of flexibility—subtle, automatic, invisible. Like the internet, tomorrow’s energy system will be decentralised, adaptive, and resilient by design.
Beyond Batteries: Valuing Services, Not Technologies
The conversation around energy storage often focuses on batteries as the linchpin of a renewable grid. But we must be cautious against technological fixation. Storage isn’t an end in itself. It is one of several ways to solve distinct problems—frequency response, short-term balancing, shifting power across the day and seasonal resilience.
In the future, markets should reward the service provided—stability, flexibility, reliability—rather than dictating the technology that delivers it. This technology agnostic approach avoids regulators and policymakers picking winners and instead incentivises innovation. Batteries will remain valuable, but their role will evolve as intelligent, autonomous systems begin to provide the services currently provided by physical storage.
A New Era of Threats—and Opportunities
Energy security is no longer just about resources; it’s about resilience in a world of hybrid threats. From cyberattacks to sabotage, modern energy systems face complex vulnerabilities. The shift to distributed renewables, however, brings an unexpected advantage: it reduces single points of failure. As an example, the Russians don’t target solar farms, because you can’t bomb every rooftop.
This distributed model makes energy systems inherently harder to disrupt. Where once we built fortresses around power stations, now we build networks that heal themselves. Renewables, far from being fragile, may prove the strongest defence we have.
Rethinking Security in an Age of AI and Electrification
A final, counterintuitive insight: artificial intelligence—often criticised for its soaring energy use—could actually enhance grid resilience. AI training loads can be shifted to match renewable availability: In other words, computation itself becomes a flexible energy asset. Whereas previously, energy systems had to be built to power the engines of economic growth, a much more collaborative approach is possible with modern AI.
This is the essence of a 21st-century security mindset: systemic thinking. Energy, digital infrastructure, and economic resilience are no longer separate domains—they are one and the same.
Conclusion: Security Through Reinvention
True energy security won’t come from stockpiling oil or fortifying pipelines. It will come from reimagining the system itself—making it flexible, distributed, and intelligent. A secure system must be clean, affordable, and better than the one it replaces. Anything less will fail to win public support or withstand the tests ahead.
The only route to energy security is renewables. But the system we have to deliver them can’t yet cope. Our task is to build the one that can.
