Foreword

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This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 292, Security and Resilience.

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Introduction

0.1 Background

Energy systems are increasingly vulnerable to severe damage from disruptions including natural and human-made disruptions, posing significant risks to societies. Building energy systems that are resilient against these threats has therefore become an emerging issue.

Energy is an essential element in people’s daily lives and in business operations. When disruptive events occur, a stable, minimum energy supply is paramount to recovering and ensuring the safety of people as well as the resumption of economic activities.

Building resilience in the energy system benefits a wide range of stakeholders. National, sub-national and local governments can meet their obligations to the public and support the continuity of critical services. In this way, they can better and more effectively fulfil their responsibilities to ensure the safety of their citizens. Resilient infrastructure allows for a faster resumption of services that support the social, economic and environmental objectives and activities of an affected region. Financial institutions benefit from reduced risks to their investments by engaging and encouraging their clients to enhance the resilience of their energy supply systems.

Resilience of the energy supply networks (networks comprised of multiple interconnected and interdependent supply chains) is achieved by designing integrated social and technical systems (a combination of organizations and technology) that are capable of adapting to unforeseen changes in the operating environment. In recent years, resilience principles have evolved to specifically address the need for organizations that operate large-scale technologies to enhance resilience, reliability and continuity of complex supply chains, including the energy supply networks.

This document is related to the following key initiatives.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction,^[ 11 ^] which provides important insights and perspectives to improve energy resilience effectively;
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).^[ 12 ^] Systemic energy resilience can contribute to achieving several of these goals, including:
- Goal 9: build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation;
- Goal 11: make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable;
- Goal 13: take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
The Paris Agreement,^[ 13 ^] the objectives of which envisage a resilient energy supply network that contributes to climate change adaptation through rapid recovery from disruption.

0.2 Benefits for users

This document provides benefits to organizations such as:

National, sub-national and local governments
Implementing energy resilience plans offers significant benefits to national, sub-national, and local governments. By supporting private and public stakeholders and communities in enhancing energy resilience, governments can ensure continuous critical services during disruptions. These comprehensive plans covering disruption prevention, reduction, restoration, and information sharing provide the benefit of minimized recovery times following incidents. Additionally, governments gain the advantage of building more robust energy infrastructure, as resilient energy supply facilities, systems, and organizations are designed to maintain stable minimum energy services during and after serious system-level disruptions, ultimately leading to stronger, more reliable energy systems for their constituents.
Individual users
Implementing energy resilience initiatives offers significant benefits to individual users. By formulating and executing personalized energy resilience plans, individuals gain the advantage of resuming their normal activities more smoothly following disruptions. These initiatives also enhance their capabilities for responding effectively to disruptions, providing peace of mind and practical solutions during energy emergencies.
Residential, industrial, commercial and institutional sectors
The residential, industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors can obtain various benefits from energy resilience enhancement initiatives implemented by governments, energy suppliers, and industrial/commercial energy consumers. These benefits include reduced downtime during emergencies, protection against economic losses, maintenance of essential services, and improved operational continuity, all contributing to greater stability and productivity across these diverse sectors.
Financial institutions
Financial institutions benefit significantly from implementing energy resilience initiatives, including positively evaluating, investing in, and financing both public and private projects that enhance energy resilience. These actions allow them to reduce risk exposure to energy-related disruptions, identify promising investment opportunities in resilient infrastructure, strengthen the sustainability of their portfolio, and contribute to broader economic stability through support of critical energy systems.
Energy supply networks
All stakeholders and contributors to energy supply networks benefit from adopting a common set of resilience principles and standardized decision frameworks. This unified approach enhances energy resilience throughout the entire supply chain, resulting in improved system reliability, more effective coordination during emergencies, reduced vulnerability to cascading failures, and ultimately delivering greater energy security for the benefit of society as a whole.

Additional potential benefits to all stakeholders include:

the recognition and understanding of social and technological contexts relevant to energy supply;
fostering social capital through building trust, broad participation and collaboration across individuals and networks.

1 Scope

This document provides the framework and principles for the energy resilience of organizations, to help reduce impacts and ultimately achieve a build back better goal after disruptive events, including natural and human-made disruptions.

It covers broad resilience engineering and management principles applicable to an energy supply network that includes social and technical considerations.

This document does not provide guidance on the application of these principles for engineering design, which require specialized considerations to address risks and define resilience measures.

This document is intended to be used by organizations responsible for, or participating in, energy supply networks.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Principles of energy resilience

5 Relevant stakeholders and their roles

5.1 General

5.2 Governments

5.3 Critical industries in the energy supply network

5.4 Energy users

5.5 Financial institutions

5.6 Emergency and rescue services

6 Approaches for enhancing energy resilience

6.1 General

6.2 Identifying events affecting the energy system

6.3 Assessing risks by event

6.4 Designing resilient energy supply networks

6.5 Ensuring a resilient energy supply

6.6 Investing in projects for energy resilience

6.7 Implementing asset management

6.8 Adopting emerging technologies

6.9 Sharing knowledge

6.10 Developing and implementing an energy resilience plan

6.11 Building sustainability into energy resilience

7 Criteria for the energy resilience plan

7.1 General

7.2 Structured internal/external communication

7.3 Governance and resources for enhancing energy resilience

7.4 Emergency response system

7.5 Energy supply network management

7.6 Financing for energy resilience enhancement

7.7 Education and training

7.8 Apply the build back better concept

8 Cooperative actions for the improvement of energy resilience

8.1 General

8.2 Involvement of financial sectors

8.3 Promote expertise through cooperation

8.4 Cooperation for emergency communications

Bibliography