Building resilient utilities

The next era of utility leadership will be defined by resilience, and the conversation has shifted from recovery to readiness.

For decades, utilities focused on delivering reliability, efficiency and cost reduction. Today, leaders face a different challenge. They must continue delivering essential services while simultaneously undertaking major infrastructure investment, digital transformation, regulatory change and energy transition programmes.

The organisations that succeed will not necessarily be those that experience the fewest disruptions. They will be those most capable of absorbing disruption while continuing to deliver.

Explore insights from our KPMG Ireland Utilities Regulatory & Resilience Centre team below.

Ireland’s resilience challenge is changing

Historically, resilience focused on protecting organisational operations. Today, resilience is being shaped by a more interconnected set of challenges.

Ireland's energy transition requires significant investment in electricity networks and grid infrastructure, while growing demand for water, housing, transport and digital services is increasing pressure on critical national infrastructure. Energy networks, water infrastructure, digital systems, communications networks and wider supply chains are more interconnected than ever before, meaning disruption in one area can quickly have consequences elsewhere.

A single event can have consequences across service delivery:

A critical supplier outage can affect operational performance.
A cyber incident can disrupt both technology and business operations.
Severe weather can place pressure on infrastructure, response capabilities and customer communications simultaneously.

Four leadership priorities shaping utility resilience

1. Critical infrastructure is becoming a national resilience issue

Utilities can no longer view resilience as an internal operational issue. As providers of critical infrastructure, resilience increasingly affects national economic activity, public confidence and Ireland's ability to deliver wider infrastructure ambitions.

As Ireland invests in energy networks, water infrastructure and wider national infrastructure programmes, leaders need to understand how disruption could affect critical services. Failures involving infrastructure, technology or key suppliers can quickly have consequences beyond the organisation itself.

2. Digital resilience is now operational resilience

Utilities increasingly rely on digital systems to operate networks, coordinate field activity and support decision-making. As Ireland's dependence on digital infrastructure grows, leaders need to understand how technology failures would affect operations, communications and service delivery.

Plans are only valuable if they work in practice. Regular exercises help expose weaknesses before a real incident does. Lessons from incidents and exercises should then be incorporated into planning and response arrangements.

3. The weakest point may sit outside the organisation

The next disruption may not originate within the organisation. It could sit with a supplier, technology provider or contractor that supports a critical service. Utilities must understand where suppliers depend on shared infrastructure, technologies or subcontractors, as these can create concentrated points of vulnerability.

Better supplier data and stronger oversight can help organisations spot risks earlier and respond more effectively. However, leadership teams also need clear escalation, continuity and recovery arrangements when a critical provider cannot deliver.

4. Boards increasingly need evidence of resilience, not assurances

Boards need evidence that the organisation can continue delivering essential services when disruption occurs.

Service mapping, scenario testing and crisis exercises help provide that evidence. For critical infrastructure, this includes considering physical, cyber and climate-related threats alongside emergency management, recovery planning, climate adaptation and technology modernisation.

Resilience must be managed as a connected capability

Resilience is no longer the responsibility of a single team or function. It depends on how effectively people, processes, technology, infrastructure and third-party providers work together before, during and after a disruption.

Many organisations continue to manage operational resilience, crisis management, supplier risk and infrastructure resilience through separate teams, frameworks and reporting structures.

The risk is fragmentation.

Bringing these disciplines together gives leaders a clearer view of how disruption could spread and where the biggest weaknesses lie. It also supports coordinated investment and decision-making before, during and after an incident.

Connected resilience capability	Strategic benefit
Critical service and dependency mapping	Better prioritisation and investment decisions
Scenario testing and crisis exercises	Evidence of preparedness and response capability
Third-party resilience oversight	Greater visibility of supply-chain vulnerabilities
Infrastructure resilience planning	Stronger continuity of critical services
Integrated governance and board reporting	Enhanced board visibility and clearer accountability

What utility leaders should do next

Establish resilience as a strategic agenda item

Resilience should inform investment decisions, transformation programmes and long-term planning rather than being managed solely as a risk function.
Connect risk, resilience and operational delivery

Disruption rarely affects a single part of an organisation. Bringing together risk, resilience and operational teams can help utilities understand dependencies, coordinate responses and maintain critical services during periods of disruption.
Demonstrate resilience through testing and continuous improvement

Resilience cannot be built through documentation alone. Regular testing, lessons learned and continuous improvement help organisations strengthen their response capabilities over time.

Understanding how risks combine

The next major utility failure is unlikely to arise from a single operational issue. It is more likely to emerge from the interaction of technology, cyber risk, suppliers, infrastructure and governance.

The challenge for utility leaders is no longer identifying individual risks. It is understanding how those risks interact, how disruption could spread across critical services and whether the organisation can continue to deliver when it matters most.

The question is no longer whether disruption will occur. It is whether the organisation can continue to deliver when it does.

About the Centre

The KPMG Ireland Utilities Regulatory & Resilience Centre brings together specialists across enterprise resilience, operational resilience, crisis management, supply chain risk, infrastructure assurance, cyber governance, transformation and regulatory change.

How KPMG can help

The KPMG Ireland Utilities Regulatory & Resilience Centre brings together capabilities across regulatory transformation, enterprise risk, operational resilience, cyber and OT governance, AI governance and programme assurance.

For practical support, get in touch with our team to explore how best to translate regulatory obligations into operational reality.

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