Industry Insights

Interested in seeing who attended the IDGA 2025 Operational Energy Summit? Take a look at the attendee snapshot, featuring the companies, military leaders, and government officials who joined us in 2025, many of whom are expected to return in 2026!

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has highlighted the critical interplay between energy and warfare, shaping global security in the 21st century. In Sparking Lines: Energy and Russia’s War on Ukraine, Sharon Burke examines energy’s pivotal role in the conflict, from Ukraine's disconnection from Russia's power grid to the deliberate targeting of energy infrastructure, revealing how energy functions as both a strategic tool and target in modern warfare.

Burke analyzes Russia’s use of energy to further geopolitical ambitions, Europe’s shift away from Russian energy, and Ukraine’s struggle to maintain its grid under attack. Originally published by the International Stability Operations Association (ISOA), the whitepaper also explores broader vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure in an increasingly interconnected world.

IDGA’s Operational Energy Summit will focus on addressing the emerging threat landscape, contested environments, the role of innovative technology, and the challenges and gaps in defense energy to ensure support of military operations.

In light of this, Honorable Sharon Burke sat down with IDGA to discuss:

• The current state of the energy security and operational energy space
• The importance of partnerships between the DoD and industry

The 'Contested Logistics and Demand Reduction' presentation was delivered by Colonel Chris Vitale, Director, Army Operational Energy and Nuclear Power Planning, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment at 2024's Operational Energy Summit. His presentation delves into:

• Operational Energy as defined by the army
• The line between Operational (OE) & Installation Energy (IE),
• Strategic, operational, and tactical energy in previous conflicts
• Overview of demand reduction, and how it can be done effectively
• OE focus areas to mitigate impacts of contested logistics .... and so much more!

For its 18th year, the IDGA Operational Energy Summit will again bring operational and installation energy leaders across US DoD, allied military, industry, and academia. This year’s summit will focus on addressing the emerging threat landscape, contested environments, and the challenges and capability gaps in defense operational and installation energy.

Our Sample Attendee List showcases the high-level attendees and leading organizations within the industry that attended the previous Operational Energy Summit to give you an idea of what to expect for this year.

Dr. Jeff Waksman is a Program Manager at SCO where he leads Project Pele as well as Project TRISCO, which focuses on encapsulated nuclear fuel. Before arriving at SCO, he worked for NASA as a Senior Policy Adviser, and at IBM where he was a staff scientist working on advanced semiconductor technology such as reactive ion etching, III-V materials, quantum computing, and heterogeneous integration.

Last February Dr. Waksman joined Dr. Annie Kammerer, Chief of the Nuclear Power Branch Office of the Chief of Engineers (OCE) in the Department of the Army Headquarters (HQDA) at IDGA’s Operational Energy Summit to provide an overview of ongoing nuclear energy projects within the DoD Before the event, IDGA sat down with Dr. Wakman to discuss the following:

• The latest updates on Project Pele
• Misconceptions surrounding nuclear energy

The US DoD is one of the largest energy consumers in the country, accounting for 77% of the government’s energy usage. In order to limit the federal government's dependency on fossil fuels, the Biden administration signed Executive Order 14057, “Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability.” in 2021 that orders the federal government to use electricity that is 100% free of carbon pollution by 2035.

To meet these new sustainability standards, the DoD is exploring a variety of clean energy sources. In this report, we will look at the latest sustainability initiatives the DoD is exploring, including:

• Solar power
• Geothermal energy
• Power-beaming technology
• Nuclear energy

The 'Defense Innovation Unit's Energy Portfolio' presentation was delivered by Dr. Andrew Higier, Director of the Energy Portfolio, Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) at 2024's Operational Energy Summit.

His presentation highlighted how the DIU strengthens the national security innovation base and provided an in-depth look into its energy portfolio, covering key areas such as demand reduction, refuelling & contested logistics, batteries & extreme conditions, and efficiency & usage.