Professional Education

The SSF Resilient Energy Certificate Program

Seven 8-hour courses, seven practitioners · Live cohorts and on-demand · Built for working professionals

A practitioner-taught program in the systems that keep energy resilient. For decision-makers and their advisors whose work depends on understanding how energy systems operate.

Why this program

The energy landscape is being remade 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 who can hold their own in energy conversations. This program gives you the working command to advise, decide, and defend your organization's energy decisions.

The Security and Sustainability Forum (SSF) is not a school. Over the past 15 years, SSF has convened more than 300 expert webinars and built a network of over 1,000 experts serving 27,000 professionals. Seven of those practitioners now teach in this program. Senior policy, industry, and academic program advisors shape the program's direction.

The program is being rolled out from fall 2026 through spring 2027. Enroll in one course now and build toward the certificate as courses become available.

Seven courses, seven practitioners

Each course stands alone. Take one for a Certificate of Completion, any four for the Resilient Energy Certificate, or all seven for the Comprehensive Certificate.

Release schedule

Matt Haupt's electricity markets course opens the program as a live cohort on October 28, 2026. Scott Sklar's distributed energy course follows on January 13, 2027. The other five launch in spring 2027.

All courses $495 · About 8 hours each · Live cohorts with recorded on-demand versions

Registration Open

Understanding Electricity Markets: Wholesale, Retail, and What Comes Next

Matt Haupt

Former Energy Director, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command
Full bio →

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.

Cohort schedule

4 Wednesdays · October 28 to November 18, 2026 · 11 AM to 1 PM Eastern · 25 seats. Sessions are recorded; miss a session and pick it up in the recording. The recording becomes the on-demand version after the cohort concludes.

See full course page

Download the syllabus ↓

Registration Opens October 1

Distributed Energy and Community Resilience

Scott Sklar

President, The Stella Group · Sustainable Energy Director, GWU EEMI
Full bio →

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.

See full course page

Spring 2027

Energy Systems and Enterprise Resilience

Joseph Fiksel

Author, Resilient by Design · Co-founder, Center for Resilience at The Ohio State University
Full bio →

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.

See full course page

Spring 2027

Renewable Energy Finance and Grid Integration

Stratos Tavoulareas

Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University · Former Global Power Lead, IFC
Full bio →

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.

See full course page

Spring 2027

Buildings, Climate, and the Economics of Decarbonization

Smita Chandra Thomas

Founder and Principal, Energy Shrink
Full bio →

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.

See full course page

Spring 2027

Energy as Corporate Strategy

Jimmy Jia

Author, The Corporate Energy Strategist Handbook
Full bio →

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.

See full course page

Spring 2027

The EV Transition: Markets, Technology, and the Grid

Julian Bentley

Managing Director, Bentley Energy Consulting
Full bio →

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.

See full course page

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Enroll in any course as it becomes available and build toward the certificate at your own pace.

Join 27,000 professionals working across energy, security, and sustainability.

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A printable overview of the full program: courses, faculty, credentials, and enrollment.

Download the program flyer ↓

Included with every enrollment

The Practitioner Webinar Series

The Practitioner Webinar Series is what makes this a program rather than seven separate courses. Every enrolled student gets ongoing access to live sessions and the Series archive, where senior practitioners examine current questions and emerging issues in resilient energy. That connection to practitioners actively shaping the field extends the learning beyond the seven courses.

What the program covers, and who it is for

What you'll learn

How U.S. electricity markets actually work
Distributed energy, microgrids, and community resilience
Operational and strategic enterprise resilience
Renewable project finance and grid integration
Building decarbonization economics
Energy as corporate strategy and governance
The EV transition, market evolution, and grid integration

The program

7 courses · take one for a Certificate of Completion, four for the Resilient Energy Certificate, or all seven for the Comprehensive Certificate

About 8 hours each · $495 per course

Live cohorts and on-demand · live sessions become on-demand after the cohort concludes

Practitioner Webinar Series · included with every enrollment

Three months to complete each on-demand course, with extensions on request

Non-degree, non-credit

Who it's for

Government officials shaping energy and infrastructure policy
Corporate energy, sustainability, and resilience leaders
Tribal, local, and community energy leaders
Analysts and advisors who need current, rigorous expertise
Engineers and managers moving into energy decision roles
Nonprofit and civic leaders working on energy and resilience

Credentials

Three ways to complete the program, three levels of commitment. No up-front commitment required — take one course, decide, and add courses as they release.

01 SSF Certificate of Completion

Single course

Fluency in one topic.

$495

02 SSF Resilient Energy Certificate

Any four of seven courses

Judgment across a coherent domain.

$1,980

03 SSF Resilient Energy Comprehensive Certificate

All seven courses

Working command of the full system.

$3,465

Enrolling a team? Contact us about group and corporate rates.

What the SSF Certificate reflects

Earning the certificate means you have 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

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.

Have questions?

Contact the SSF Program Office

Reach Edward Saltzberg, SSF Executive Director, directly by email, phone, or a scheduled call. For group and corporate enrollments, program partnerships, or general inquiries about SSF.

✉ esaltzberg@ssfworld.org

☎ (703) 992-3848

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