The painful reality is that our power utilities aren’t as reliable as we want to believe, and their facilities are vulnerable to attack. It’s time for organizations to actively mitigate and plan for disruptions of electricity and natural gas.

After a disruption or emergency occurs, it’s tempting to suspend some routine protocols, procedures and standards to recover as quickly as possible. It is often prudent and effective to do so but recovery teams should be mindful that cutting the wrong corners can increase risk, worsen the situation and increase recovery time.

Your organization has a choice regarding supplier resilience. You may assume that suppliers have sufficient plans and recovery procedures that will reduce the risk and impacts of disruptions to their operations. Or, you may choose to actively verify supplier resilience.