Think of resilience and you are likely to picture engineers battling the elements to keep the lights on, prevent flooding, and keep gas flowing, especially after the UK has been battered by a series of winter storms.
However, resilience is about much more than just this. It also security of supply and supply chain risks. Furthermore, companies must be financially resilient and resilient in the face of political uncertainty. They must be aware of their vulnerability to physical and cyber crimes and alert to the emerging resilience risks that accompany population growth, demographic shifts and new demand patterns. Then there’s resilience in the face of skills gaps and the demand for capabilities in the workforce which did not exist in the recent past.
In short, becoming resilient can seem like fighting a hydra which attacks from a new angle every second and sprouts new heads just as you think you are winning.
Utility regulators are increasingly aware of resilience challenges, especially given the social and economic devastation that failure of water and energy supply would entail. In 2014 the government introduced a resilience duty for Ofwat and in the same year Ofgem and the Department of Energy and Climate Change commissioned a Science and Technology Select Committee inquiry into the resilience of the UK electricity system. The resulting report, published last spring, urged the creation of a whole system view – that we might better understand and respond to the many vulnerabilities identified. It’s an objective that is being actively pursued today by the Institution for Engineering and Technology and the Energy Systems Catapult, which will issue more news and recommendations for energy system resilience in May.
Utility companies need to be able to interpret what new perspectives on resilience mean for them – and to assure shareholders, customers and regulators that they have mitigation and adaptation plans in place. With this goal in mind, the following pages present a range of views on resilience challenges. Resilience is also a major theme at Utility Week Live, the sector’s show, being held in Birmingham on 17-18 May.
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