The SSF Resilient Energy Certificate Program
Seven short courses, seven practitioners · Live cohorts and on-demand · Built for working professionals
Electricity Markets course with Matt Haupt launches October 28. See details ↓
Every organization is now an energy organization. Energy assurance, security, and affordability shape decisions in every sector. Those with leaders fluent in energy have the advantage.
The energy landscape has been remade in the last five years by global events, grid stress, policy shifts, new technology, and security pressures. Every organization — public, private, tribal, civic — feels it. Few have leaders and advisors fluent enough in the current terms to make informed decisions.
This certificate program builds that fluency. The ability to hold your own in the room with utility engineers, project developers, policymakers, and CFOs on the energy questions that shape what your organization does next. Whether you make the call or advise the person who does, this is where working professionals build the command of energy the work now requires.
SSF has convened the practitioners at that table for fifteen years. Three hundred expert webinars. More than a thousand security and sustainability experts convened. Twenty-seven thousand professionals across the network. Now that network is teaching — seven short, focused energy courses, built and led by the people doing the work today.
The certificate you earn is a credential from the practitioners the field already trusts. Seven of them teach the courses. A separate group of senior policy, industry, and academic program advisors shapes the program's direction.
What you'll learn
The program
Who it's for
More than a course
Each course goes deep on one topic with one practitioner. What makes the program greater than any single course is the Practitioner Webinar Series — live sessions connecting instructors and guest experts across the whole energy system, so you leave with a working view of the whole, not just your slice.
The SSF Practitioner Webinar Series
The Practitioner Webinar Series is what makes this a program rather than seven separate courses. Instructors work across topics so the connections between them come alive. Guest experts and current events keep the program grounded in what’s happening in the field right now.
Some sessions bring two or more instructors together to work across topics — a session on renewable finance pulls in grid operations; a session on buildings reaches into policy and markets. Others feature leading minds from industry, government, and academia as guest experts on the questions shaping the field right now.
Live sessions
Attend live, ask questions, engage across the practitioner network.
Growing archive
All sessions recorded and archived — standing access for current and past students.
Current events
Guest experts and cross-topic conversations bring the field’s live questions into the program as they unfold.
Seven courses, seven practitioners
Each course builds a capability you can put to work immediately. Below, each course shows its current release status. Matt's electricity markets course opens the program as a live cohort; Scott's distributed energy course follows in January; the others in the spring of 2027.
Release schedule
Matt Haupt’s electricity markets course — Live cohort October 28, 2026. Registration open now.
Scott Sklar’s distributed energy course — Live cohort January 13, 2027. Registration opens October 1.
The remaining five courses — Spring of 2027. Get on the course alerts list(opens in new tab) to be notified when each opens.
On the current schedule, you could take Matt’s course this fall, three more as they release, and complete the four-course certificate by late 2027.
REGISTRATION OPENS OCT 1
Scott Sklar
When the grid fails, who keeps the lights on? Distributed energy: solar and other renewables, storage, microgrids, and efficiency working together is how communities and facilities secure power that holds when the larger system does not. This course teaches you to tell genuine resilience from the appearance of it, drawing on projects and practitioners across the world.
Not every distributed energy investment delivers the resilience it promises. This course covers the frameworks for assessing which technologies fit which needs, the financing structures that make distributed projects viable, and the policy and regulatory conditions that determine what is actually possible on the ground.
Particular attention is paid to how global energy security conditions, supply chain pressures, and shifting federal policy are reshaping the investment case for grid-edge systems. Every concept is grounded in real deployments across governments, infrastructure owners, and commercial clients, the projects that worked and the ones that did not.
After this course
You’ll be able to assess a community or facility’s energy vulnerabilities and design a strategy to address them.
Live cohort: 4 Wednesdays, Jan 13 – Feb 3, 2027, 10 AM – noon ET
25 seats · Live cohort in January, then on-demand
$495
About 8 hrs · $495
REGISTRATION OPEN
Matt Haupt
Electricity markets are among the most consequential systems in the economy, and among the least understood by the people who depend on them. Every procurement decision, every energy bill, every policy debate runs through machinery most professionals were never taught to understand. This course teaches you how it actually works.
Starting at the origins of commercial power, the course builds to a working understanding of how today’s competitive wholesale markets function across energy, capacity, and ancillary services. It covers market structure, the history and mechanics of deregulation, the roles of ISOs and RTOs, and how prices are actually formed.
It then turns to the forces now reshaping these markets, from data center load growth and electrification to the integration of variable renewables. The emphasis throughout is practical: understanding the system well enough to make better decisions, whether you are buying power, shaping policy, or analyzing the sector.
After this course
You’ll understand how wholesale prices are set and where the market is heading, and be able to apply that to buying power, shaping policy, or analyzing the sector.
Live cohort: 4 Wednesdays, Oct 28 – Nov 18, 2026, 10 AM – noon ET
25 seats · Live cohort now, then on-demand
$495
About 8 hrs · $495
Spring 2027
Joseph Fiksel
Energy systems, the production, transmission, storage, and use of power, are now a critical risk factor for every enterprise. As supply chains, geopolitics, cyber threats, and extreme weather grow more turbulent, the organizations that endure are the ones that build resilience in by design. This course shows you how.
Today’s enterprise risk managers face mounting challenges across every critical system. The economic environment has grown more volatile due to instability in supply chains, political forces, and natural disasters, while new threats have emerged from cyber-risk, military conflicts, and pandemics. This course explains the fundamentals of enterprise resilience through case studies of organizations that thrive in the face of that turbulence.
They have learned to balance resilience with shareholder value in two ways: operational resilience, the ability to bounce back from disruptions in critical systems, and strategic resilience, the ability to anticipate fundamental shifts in the business environment. You’ll leave with the insights and tools to embed resilience into your own sphere of responsibility, from supply chains to environmental affairs to capital planning.
After this course
You’ll be able to make a credible business case for resilience to senior leadership, in language they understand, and build it into how your organization actually operates.
Course page coming soon
About 8 hrs · $495
Spring 2027
Stratos Tavoulareas
A renewable project succeeds or fails long before it generates a kilowatt, in the financing. And the single factor that shapes financing most is the one developers underestimate: the grid. This course is about bringing a renewable project to financial closure, and the grid realities that decide whether it gets there.
The course covers all the essential elements required to bring a renewable energy project into financial closure. Particular emphasis is placed on the interaction between the power grid and the project, because that interaction shapes everything downstream. It affects the ability to obtain a grid connection agreement, and it drives the risks tied to grid design and operation, which in turn affect the revenue stream and, ultimately, the financial viability of the project.
You’ll learn how lenders and developers evaluate these risks, what they look for before committing capital, and how a project can be structured to remain viable as policy, market, and grid conditions evolve over a long asset life. The course draws on decades of global power sector project experience across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.
After this course
You’ll know what lenders and developers look for when grid and market risks are on the table, and how those risks affect whether a renewable project reaches financial close.
Course page coming soon
About 8 hrs · $495
Spring 2027
Smita Chandra Thomas
Buildings are where decarbonization gets real, and where good intentions most often collide with hard economics. They account for a large share of global energy use and emissions, yet the gap between a green building plan and a financeable one is where most projects stall. This course teaches you to close it.
The course teaches how to apply techno-economic analysis to building decarbonization decisions and how to build climate risk assessments that produce actionable guidance rather than abstract scenario outputs. It covers the policy frameworks and market transformation programs that are actually moving the sector, the economics of electrification and energy efficiency, and how shifting energy security conditions are reshaping the case for building electrification.
Drawing on advisory work for government programs and international green building initiatives, the course connects the analysis to the decisions that owners, developers, and policymakers actually face, so you can tell which interventions deliver real returns and which only look good on paper.
After this course
You’ll be able to run a techno-economic analysis on a building decarbonization decision and identify which interventions deliver real economic and carbon returns.
Course page coming soon
About 8 hrs · $495
Spring 2027
Jimmy Jia
In most organizations, sustainability is a pile of disconnected initiatives that shifts with every change in leadership. The ones that get it right treat energy as strategy, with metrics that outlast the people who set them. This course teaches you to make that shift.
The course introduces the Energy-as-Strategy methodology, which uses energy consumption and carbon as governance metrics that reveal how effectively an organization is actually run, not just how it performs environmentally. It covers how to connect energy and climate considerations to organizational decision-making, and how to identify the operational inefficiencies that energy and carbon data expose.
You’ll learn how to build the kind of coherent strategy that leadership takes seriously and that survives a change at the top. The course draws on two decades of work helping corporations, governments, and nonprofits turn energy from a cost line into a source of strategic advantage.
After this course
You’ll be able to turn scattered sustainability efforts into a coherent strategy and use energy and carbon data to identify operational inefficiencies leadership cares about.
Course page coming soon
About 8 hrs · $495
Spring 2027
Julian Bentley
Fleet electrification looks simple: swap the vehicles. In practice, plans that pencil out on paper stall against charging infrastructure, utility approvals, and grid capacity nobody accounted for. This course teaches you to design a plan that survives contact with reality.
The course teaches how to structure a fleet electrification decision that accounts for vehicle technology, charging infrastructure, total cost of ownership, policy, and energy security at the same time. It pays particular attention to how charging infrastructure choices ripple into grid services, demand management, and utility relationships, the dimensions that determine whether a plan can actually be built and operated.
Drawing on more than two decades advising the federal government on fuel management, federal fleet electrification, and operational energy strategy, the course closes the gap between market claims and what electrification actually requires inside real institutions.
After this course
You’ll be able to design a fleet electrification plan that accounts for grid capacity, utility approvals, and total cost of ownership from the start.
Course page coming soon
About 8 hrs · $495
Understanding Electricity Markets: Wholesale, Retail, and What Comes Next
Taught live by Matt Haupt — 30+ years leading energy resilience across the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps
The program opens with Matt Haupt's live cohort on the electricity markets shaping every energy decision. A working understanding of how U.S. markets actually function — how prices are set, how power is procured, and where the system is heading. The recording becomes the on-demand version after the cohort concludes.
Credentials
Three ways to complete the program, three levels of commitment. One course builds fluency in a topic. Four courses build judgment across a coherent domain. Seven courses build the working command that reshapes what you can contribute. No up-front commitment required — take one course, decide whether the program earns your continued enrollment, and add courses as they release.
Single Course
SSF Certificate of Completion
Fluency in one topic. Complete any individual course.
$495
Certificate Program
SSF Resilient Energy Certificate
Judgment across four topics. Complete any four of seven courses.
$1,9804 × $495
Comprehensive Certificate
SSF Resilient Energy Comprehensive Certificate
Working command of the full system. Complete all seven courses.
$3,4657 × $495
Enrolling a team? Contact us about group and corporate rates.
What the SSF Certificate Reflects
Earning the certificate means you’ve been trained by the practitioners actively shaping resilient energy work — senior figures across federal government, national laboratories, international finance, and industry. You understand the system, the actors, and the current pressures reshaping it. Your organization gains someone who can advise, decide, and defend the decisions.
Common questions
Answers to what buyers and students most often ask.
Are these courses for academic credit?
No. SSF courses are non-degree, non-credit professional education. They document completion of SSF course requirements and are not represented as academic credit or accredited CEUs.
Can I take a single course without pursuing a certificate?
Yes. Take one course for focused professional development, complete four (as they become available) for the Resilient Energy Certificate, or all seven for the Comprehensive Certificate.
Are the courses live or self-paced?
Both. Matt Haupt's electricity markets course launches as a live cohort in October; Scott Sklar's distributed energy course follows as a live cohort in January. Both become on-demand courses after their live sessions end. The other five courses launch as on-demand. Additional live cohorts may be offered periodically. The Practitioner Webinar Series adds live sessions across topics year-round for every enrolled student.
Are all seven courses available now?
No. The first course launches October 28 as a live cohort. Scott Sklar's course follows in January 2027. The remaining five courses launch in spring of 2027. Enroll in any course as it becomes available; you can earn the certificate by completing the required number of courses over time.
How long do I have to complete an on-demand course?
Each course is about eight hours of material. You complete it on your own schedule within three months of enrollment. Extensions are available on request.
How do I pay and what do I get for expense reporting?
Enrollment is by credit card at registration. You receive an email receipt for expense reporting. Contact us if your organization requires additional documentation.
What is your refund policy?
For on-demand courses: full refund within seven days of enrollment if you have not accessed the course materials. After that, no refunds, but you retain access for the full three months and can request an extension. For live cohorts: full refund up to 48 hours before the first session. After the first session begins, no refunds — you keep access to the on-demand version after the cohort concludes.
What if I miss a live session?
All live sessions are recorded and made available to enrolled students the next day. You can watch on your own schedule and return to the following live session with any questions from what you missed. You have three months after the cohort ends to complete the quiz that earns your Certificate of Completion, and you can retake it if needed.
Are group or organizational enrollments available?
Yes. Contact us about group and corporate rates for agencies, companies, tribes, nonprofits, and professional teams.
Talk to Edward directly
Reach the SSF Executive Director — by email, phone, or a scheduled call.
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