Imagining the Energy Cybergeddon

In this thesis, I examine how the process of digitalization in the energy system is leading to changing understandings of its security. More precisely I track how discourses place themselves into different epistemic logics of security when debating digital incidents versus non-digital ones. I draw on the work of several critical security studies scholars, most notably Claudia Aradau (2014) and her work on security epistemics and the rise of resilience-thinking in modern societies. The creation of problems, through expressing concerns, assessing impacts, and promoting solutions, creates an overarching narrative that frames how we understand security events and dangers. Analyzing a broad collection of texts, I examine how expert discourse make sense of security concerns, impacts and solutions, centered around four main cases. These cases are the Baumgarten explosion in 2017, the Industroyer malware taking down the Ukrainian power grid in 2017, as well as a broader reading of security concerns pertaining to digital technologies and non-digital risks. The analysis highlights how digital security concerns are in part understood as radically uncertain, being unable to be understood both in terms of occurrence and impact, which implies certain security practices of preemption and societal resilience. As digital technologies and tools become more commonplace in the energy system, protecting these systems becomes more centered around the security practices “allowed” by the dominant understanding of cyber security. As a consequence, the digitalization of energy systems pushes societies further along in the move away from threats and existential dangers, and towards catastrophic risks, resilience and the management of uncertainty