Energy System Resilience

Ensuring energy security encompasses both long-term and short-term dimensions. The long-term dimension involves securing sufficient infrastructure investment and diverse supply sources. The short-term dimension – resilience – focuses on systems’ ability to cope with events exceeding standard planning conditions. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has worked to protect its energy sector and to increase its ability to withstand and rapidly recover from Russia’s attacks on its energy infrastructure. The report explores the lessons that Ukraine has been learning as it works to bolster system resilience and identifies measures that apply to a range of high-impact events – such as cyberattacks, physical attacks on infrastructure, extreme and severe weather, and unexpected infrastructure failures – and can in turn be adopted by policymakers and regulators around the world, taking into account national circumstances and following assessments of costs and risk.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has worked closely with Ukraine, an Association country, on energy system resilience, publishing a 10-point plan ahead of the 2024-2025 winter, along with a 2025-2026 update and a roadmap for decentralising Ukraine's power system. This has provided Ukraine with critical assistance, while also offering invaluable real-world lessons that can inform resilience planning for IEA Member countries and beyond. Industry from Europe and other regions is already collaborating with the Ukrainian private sector and learning from practices forged under extreme conditions as they provide support. This report distils key lessons from Ukraine's experience that can inform energy system resilience efforts worldwide.