A novel approach to assess resiliency of energy systems

Abstract

The scope of this document is to outline different notions of the term resilience used in the scientific literature and explore how the concept of resilience can be applied to energy systems. Thus the major questions to be addressed are: Which definitions and underlying concepts of resilience are used in the scientific literature? How can resilience be defined with respect to energy systems and which underlying principles can be identified? Different characteristics of the resilience concept used in various contexts are outlined and a methodology for selection of an indicator set for an energy resilience assessment is presented. Definitions of resilience, vulnerability and adaptability are very much interlinked. A novel framework is proposed to foster the understanding of the interlinkage between these three terms and to cluster indicators to assess energy system resilience. It is argued that resilience can be defined as a function of vulnerability and adaptability, therefore increasing adaptability or reducing vulnerability causes higher system resilience.