www.resilient-energy.org | www.nrel.gov/usaid-partnership

Planning a Resilient 

Power Sector 

Ensuring reliable, secure, safe, 

and affordable electricity

What is power sector resilience?

The provision of reliable, secure, and affordable electricity is essential to power economic growth and development. The power 

system is at risk from an array of natural, 

technological, and man-made threats that 

can cause everything from power interruption to chronic undersupply. It is critical for 

policymakers, planners, and system operators 

to safeguard their systems and plan for and 

invest in the improved resilience of the power 

sector in their countries. 

Through holistic resilience planning, actors can 

anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to the threats 

and stresses on the power system. Resilience 

planning identifies the threats, impacts, and 

vulnerabilities to the power system, and 

devises strategies to mitigate them.

What are threats to the

power system?

Power sector vulnerabilities—weaknesses 

within infrastructure, systems, or operations—

are susceptible to natural, technological, and 

human-caused threats. Impacts from these 

threats include potential fuel supply shortages for transportation and energy generation, physical infrastructure damage, shifts in 

energy demand, and disruption of electricity 

supply to the end user.2 These disruptions, in 

turn, adversely affect critical services and facilities (e.g., hospital services, water treatment, 

and communications networks). As such, it 

is vital to understand threats to the power 

system and their associated impacts. 

Natural threats include long-term climatic 

changes, such as variations in precipitation 

patterns and changes in air and water temperatures, as well as severe weather events, 

such as storms, flooding, and storm surges. 

For example, warmer water and drought may 

impact the availability of cooling water for 

thermal generation and increase competition 

between hydroelectric generation facilities 

and other users. Altered precipitation patterns 

and more intense storms can impact hydropower output and biomass resource availability. Changes in wind direction, speed, and 

availability can alter wind power generation 

and damage transmission and distribution 

lines. Flooding and extreme weather events, 

such as hurricanes, severe storms, and wildfires, can damage generation, transmission, 

and distribution infrastructure.3,4 This damage 

can cause both short- and long-term outages 

as seen in the United States after hurricanes 

Irma and Maria.

Technological threats are often unpredicted 

equipment and infrastructure failures. For 

example, dam failure, nuclear power station 

accidents, generation station fires, and power 

outages caused by faulty system equipment 

or aging infrastructure are all considered 

technological threats. These threats can be 

stand alone or tied to human-caused or 

natural threats. For example, the Three Mile 

Island nuclear incident was an isolated technology failure whereas the Fukushima nuclear 

incident was directly tied to a 15-meter 

tsunami caused by the Great East Japan 

earthquake.5,6 Aging or undersized electricity 

transmission and distribution infrastructure 

are also common threats that can cause the 

failure and interruption of electricity.

Human-caused threats fit into two categories: accidents and malicious events. 

Accidents involve unintentional actions that 

damage systems, such as a driver running 

into a transmission pole and causing an 

outage. Malicious events are the result of 

deliberate, harmful, human actions, such 

as physical terrorism or cyberattacks on 

power infrastructure and control systems. 

Physical attacks could injure workers and 

destroy energy infrastructure, such as fuel 

pipelines or transmission lines. Cyberattacks 

can impact system operations or take 

confidential information—targeting power 

control systems, generators, or critical data 

infrastructure.7 

How do I improve power

sector resilience?

Improving power sector resilience requires 

systematically identifying and addressing 

vulnerabilities through proactive resilience 

planning. Power sector resilience planning 

can be done at many geographic scales and 

should be included within the existing power 

sector planning processes in place, such 

as integrated resource planning or power 

development planing.7,8

Planning for power sector resilience

Planning for power sector resilience requires 

engaging stakeholders in a common vision 

for a resilient system, gathering needed 

system data and information, assessing 

vulnerabilities, and developing strategies and 

enabling policies to improve the resilience 

of the sector. To perform a vulnerability 

assessment, planners initially gather data 

about critical loads, threats, energy resources, 

energy system infrastructure, and other

relevant areas. The Resilience Roadmap 

(www.nrel.gov/resilience-planningroadmap) and the Renewable Energy Data 

Explorer (www.re-explorer.org) provide 

data lists (e.g., relevant polices and plans, 

electricity generation characteristics, transportation systems profiles, energy costs, and 

Severe weather can cause flooding, landslides, 

and other threats to power system infrastructure and affect energy resource availability. 

Renewable energy generation can enhance 

resilience because of its modular nature and lack 

of fuel requirements.4 Photo from iStock 155353280

What is Power Sector Resilience?

The ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt 

to changing conditions and withstand, respond 

to, and recover rapidly from disruptions to the 

power sector through adaptable and holistic 

planning and technical solutions.1
Jennifer E. Leisch, Ph.D.

USAID-NREL Partnership Manager

U.S. Agency for International Development

Tel: +1-303-913-0103 | Email: jleisch@usaid.gov

Sadie Cox

Senior Researcher

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Tel: +1-303-384-7391 | Email: sadie.cox@nrel.gov

The Resilient Energy Platform provides expertly curated resources, training, tools, and technical assistance 

to enhance power sector resilience. The Resilient Energy Platform is supported by the U.S. Agency for 

International Development.

The USAID-NREL Partnership addresses critical challenges to scaling up advanced energy systems 

through global tools and technical assistance, including the Renewable Energy Data Explorer, Greening the 

Grid, the International Jobs and Economic Development Impacts tool, and the Resilient Energy Platform. 

More information can be found at: www.nrel.gov/usaid-partnership.

www.resilient-energy.org | www.nrel.gov/usaid-partnership

This work was authored, in part, by the National Renewable 

Energy Laboratory (NREL), operated by Alliance for Sustainable 

Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under 

Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by the 

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) 

under Contract No. IAG-17-2050. The views expressed in this 

report do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the 

U.S. Government, or any agency thereof, including USAID.

government and community operations) and 

aggregated spatial data (e.g., energy resource 

availability and location of energy infrastructure) that can support resilience planning.

After gathering data, planners conduct a vulnerability assessment that considers the risks 

(calculated as the product of the likelihood of 

the threat and the severity of the vulnerability) 

and exposure (how power systems may 

respond to threats) posed by certain threats 

that a system faces.9

After assessing vulnerabilities, planners identify 

and prioritize solutions to improve power sector 

resilience. These solutions can then be integrated 

into existing power sector plans and policies.10

Solutions may include options such as spatial 

diversification of generation and transmission, 

development of microgrids for critical systems, 

introducing redundancy to the most vulnerable systems, and demand side management 

and efficiency. Any of these solutions should 

be completed within an appropriate policy 

framework that values and enables resilience 

through infrastructure development and 

operational planning. It is also vital to identify 

financing that enables implementation of 

these solutions. The effectiveness of actions 

and policies should be evaluated regularly, as 

the resilience process is iterative.10

Resilient Energy Platform

The Resilient Energy Platform provides expertly 

curated resources, training, tools, and technical 

assistance to enhance power sector resilience. 

Find out more at www.resilient-energy.org.

References

[1] Hotchkiss, Eliza, Alex Dane, and Connie Komomua. 

“Resilience Roadmap.” National Renewable Energy 

Laboratory (NREL), 2018. https://www.nrel.gov/

resilience-planning-roadmap/.

[2] DOE. “Climate Change and the Electricity Sector: Guide 

for Climate Change Resilience Planning.” Washington, D.C.: 

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), 2016. https://www.

energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/10/f33/Climate%20

Change%20and%20the%20Electricity%20Sector%20

Guide%20for%20Climate%20Change%20Resilience%20

Planning%20September%202016_0.pdf.

[3] Hellmuth, Molly, Pamela Cookson, and Joanne Potter. 

“Addressing Climate Vulnerability for Power System 

Resilience and Energy Security: A Focus on Hydropower 

Resources.” Technical Report. RALI Series: Promoting 

Solutions for Low Emission Development. Washington, D.C.: 

Resources to Advance LEDS Implementation (RALI) from 

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and 

ICF International, Inc., 2017. https://www.climatelinks.org/

resources/addressing-climate-vulnerability-powersystem-resilience-and-energy-security-focus.

[4] Miara, Ariel, Jordan E. Macknick, Charles J. Vörösmarty, 

Vincent C. Tidwell, Robin Newmark, and Balazs Fekete. 

“Climate and Water Resource Change Impacts and 

Adaptation Potential for US Power Supply.” Nature

Climate Change 7, no. 11 (November 2017): 793–98.

https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3417.

[5] NRC. “Backgrounder: Three Mile Island Accident.”

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). 2018.

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/factsheets/3mile-isle.html.

[6] World Nuclear Association. “Fukushima Accident.”

2018. http://www.world-nuclear.org/informationlibrary/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/

fukushima-accident.aspx.

[7] NIST. “Community Resilience Planning Guide.” National 

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 2018. 

https://www.nist.gov/topics/community-resilience/

community-resilience-planning-guide.

[8] Cox, Sadie, Eliza Hotchkiss, Dan Bilello, Andrea Watson, 

Alison Holm, and Jennifer Leisch. “Bridging Climate Change 

Resilience and Mitigation in the Electricity Sector Through 

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency: Emerging

Climate Change and Development Topics for Energy

Sector Transformation.” Technical Report. Golden, CO:

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), 2017.

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy18osti/67040.pdf.

[9] GIZ. “The Vulnerability Sourcebook: Concept and 

Guidelines for Standardised Vulnerability Assessments.” 

Bonn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale 

Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, 2014.

https://www.adelphi.de/en/publication/vulnerability-sourcebook-concept-and-guidelines-standardisedvulnerability-assessments.

[10] Cox, S., Gagnon, P., Stout, S., Zinaman, O., Watson, A., 

and Hotchkiss, E. 2016. “Distributed Generation to Support 

Development-Focused Climate Action. EC-LEDS (Enhancing 

Capacity for Low Emission Development Strategies).” 

Technical Report. Golden, CO: NREL. www.nrel.gov/docs/

fy16osti/66597.pdf.

Include entities 

beyond utilities and 

governments to 

enhance decisions, 

provide outreach, 

and ensure buy-in

Identify necessary 

energy systems 

and resources, gaps 

and vulnerabilities, 

and impacts of 

system failure

Dene and assess 

threats together with 

their impacts and 

likelihoods, as well as 

the associated power 

sector vulnerabilities 

and their severities

Identify and prioritize 

solutions to address 

vulnerabilities and 

incorporate guidance 

into existing power 

sector plans

Adopt policies to 

realize full benets 

of power system 

resilience strategies 

and coordinate their 

implementation

Learn what is 

eective and 

support periodic 

updates

Engage 

Stakeholders Gather Data

Assess

Threats and 

Vulnerabilities

Develop 

Strategies

Enact

Enabling

Policies

Evaluate

Fig. 1. Planning 

for power sector 

resilience can 

happen at different 

geographic scales 

(local, national, or 

regional) and should 

be incorporated 

into existing power 

sector planning and 

policies to ensure 

effectiveness.

NREL/TP-7A40-73618 | May 2019

NREL prints on paper that contains recycled content.

Written by Nathan Lee and Sherry Stout, National Renewable Energy Laboratory