January 11, 2023

The Resilience Steering Group, which includes representation from both the NATF and EPRI, has created a new NATF-EPRI definition of resilience. Development included a thorough review of available resilience definitions and frameworks with intentional incorporation of common terms and concepts. The new definition will guide NATF and EPRI collective and respective work in resilience and can serve as a point of convergence through use by organizations across the electricity subsector.

The original (2017) definition was limited to transmission resilience. While transmission entities are a special focus for the NATF, we recognize many of our members and other utilities include business units beyond transmission, including generation, distribution, or both. In addition, many entities approach resilience holistically, so an overall definition for the electricity subsector aligns with and realizes efficiencies from that approach.

New definition:

The ability of the system and its components (both equipment and human) to (1) prepare for, (2) anticipate, (3) absorb, (4) adapt to, and (5) recover from non-routine disruptions, including high impact-low frequency (HILF) events, in a reasonable amount of time

Where:

1. Prepare involves both longer-term mitigation strategies (e.g., system hardening, sparing strategies/acquisition) and shorter-term preparations (e.g., reconfigurations, staging)
2. Anticipate provides situational awareness before and during an event
3. Absorb requires inherent robustness of the system and supporting processes during an event
4. Adapt entails flexibility and scalability of the system and supporting processes during an event
5. Recover relates to response and recovery activities during an event