Enhancing energy resilience and efficiency in port energy systems: an integrated framework for resilience assessment

Extended abstract 5-002-26

Background
The economic and social roles of maritime ports have undergone significant evolution over the past century. Recent literature emphasizes the potential of converting maritime ports into energy hubs, a concept that reimagines ports as interfaces between various energy infrastructures and as units of energy production, conversion, storage, and consumption. However, transforming ports into energy hubs would imply merging two major critical infrastructures—maritime transportation systems and energy systems—which would increase exposure to system shocks, introducing disruptive risks from one system to the other and vice versa. This development will require greater emphasis on resilience approaches that strengthen port energy systems’ capacity to withstand shocks. 

Results
The main contribution of this research is to define and validate resilience indicators for assessing energy systems. It does so by conceptualizing an Energy Resilience Matrix detailing the indicators and by incorporating port authority perspectives to assess their practical relevance for maritime ports. The result is a set of 77 resilience indicators spanning all system layers (Infrastructure, Information, Governance, Community) and system resilience functions (Plan/prepare, Absorb, Recover, Adapt). The research also provides a critical reflection on the utility of indicators as an approach to measuring and monitoring energy resilience performance, assessing their potential and limitations. 

Conclusion
Empirical data from this research, as well as from previous research, support the relevance of the conceptualized resilience indicators and the Energy Resilience Matrix as strategic tools for building energy resilience capacity. Yet, as highlighted by the respondents, certain indicators may still prove difficult to operationalize due to financial and technological constraints of the organizations. Furthermore, as resilience capacity sometimes extends beyond the quantifiable, there is a risk that overreliance on quantitative indicators to measure resilience performance will result in a technocentric focus that overlooks the governance models and stakeholder communities that also support the system. These limitations warrant future research to investigate alternative frameworks and methodologies better suited to capturing the multidimensional nature of energy resilience, as well as to develop financial incentives and compelling business cases that ensure the economic viability and long-term sustainability of resilience interventions.

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