{"id":29828,"date":"2025-08-27T17:59:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trccompanies.com\/?post_type=news-and-insights&p=29828"},"modified":"2025-08-27T17:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T17:59:08","slug":"a-structured-approach-to-minimizing-outage-risk-and-building-grid-resilience","status":"publish","type":"news-and-insights","link":"https:\/\/www.trccompanies.com\/fr\/insights\/a-structured-approach-to-minimizing-outage-risk-and-building-grid-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimize Outage Risk and Improve Response. Welcome to the \u201cResiliency Bow Tie.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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In an era defined by surging electricity demand and an escalating threat landscape, utilities face pressures more intense than ever. Population growth, electrification, digitalization and climate volatility have converged into an elevated threat matrix, with the risk of outages and service disruptions increasing at an accelerated pace.<\/p>\n

For example, some predict that power demand in major European countries could increase by as much as 7 percent per year until 2030<\/a>, after two decades of relative stagnation. In addition, cyberattacks are on the rise, with Europe recording the highest increase in cyberattacks against critical infrastructure in Q2 2025 at 22 percent<\/a>. In the U.S., electricity consumption is on track for another record year, with power demand expected to rise to 4,189 billion kilowatt<\/a> (kWh) hours in 2025 and 4,278 billion kWh in 2026.<\/p>\n

Under these conditions, utilities can\u2019t afford to rely on decades-old playbooks or ad hoc approaches to resilience. They need an integrated approach to minimize risks and increase resiliency for every type of hazard and threat.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the Resiliency Bow Tie.<\/p>\n

Designed by TRC after years of client collaboration and engagement, the Bow Tie approach gives utilities a strategic framework to anticipate and respond to unexpected events, ensuring reliable service delivery.<\/p>\n

An Era of Compounded Risk<\/h2>\n

Reducing outage risk and improving resilience has never been more daunting for utility leaders. Safe, reliable service is impacted by multiple variables, from aging assets to intensifying storms, cyber threats and increasing customer expectations. These multifaceted, deeply intertwined dynamics demand a new level of coordination, transparency and innovation.<\/p>\n

Utilities are grappling with an aging and increasingly stressed infrastructure landscape. Aging substation equipment, lines and transformers, which are often decades past their intended lifespan, introduce constant vulnerabilities. Even well-intentioned upgrades can disrupt operations themselves, highlighting the delicate balance between maintenance and risk. Moreover, the complexity of networks, with interdependencies between physical, IT and OT systems, creates numerous points of potential failure.<\/p>\n

Climate change and extreme weather events are shifting risk profiles at a pace that outstrips traditional planning. The frequency and severity of hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and heatwaves are pushing operations and recovery teams to their limits.<\/p>\n

In parallel, the digital transformation of utilities has created both opportunity and exposure. As utilities adopt automation, data analytics and interconnectivity, the risk of cyberattacks, often driven by artificial intelligence, has increased exponentially. With an estimated 2,200 cyberattacks<\/a> globally every day in 2025, and with the energy sector accounting for a rising share of incidents, the margin for error is slim.<\/p>\n

Regulatory, business and public scrutiny are also intensifying. Stakeholders demand transparency, systematic prioritization, and defensible investments\u2014but too often competing viewpoints and priorities slow progress. The tension between cost constraints and the need for redundancy or hardening strategies (such as undergrounding circuits versus floodproofing or automation) can lead to impasses rather than action.<\/p>\n

Internally, organizational inertia, siloed communication and insufficient documentation of vulnerabilities hinder agility. Lessons from past failures can be quickly forgotten if not systematically reviewed and integrated into planning. The lack of standards for risk assessment leads to inconsistent\u2014and sometimes ineffective\u2014decision-making. Ultimately, every utility finds itself at a different stage in the resilience journey, but all face a common imperative: adapt continually, while balancing risk, cost and reliability.<\/p>\n

Challenges include:<\/p>\n