Adapting the theory of resilience to energy systems: a review and outlook

Abstract

Sustainable systems must maintain their function even in the event of disruptions in order to be considered truly sustainable. The theory of resilience concerns the behavior of systems during and aftershocks. Initially, modern understanding of resilience focused on ecological systems; however, the theory was extended to include the ecological aspects and the also social aspects of a system. As a result of climate change, increased efforts have been made to ensure energy systems are more sustainable. The issue of resilience has therefore significantly gained importance of late to energy systems. In the future, modern energy systems will be increasingly exposed to disruptions, whether due to climate change, terrorism, or variable power supply from renewable energy sources. Protecting energy systems from all these threats is only possible at great cost, but it is much more sensible to design resilient systems that can quickly resume their system function after a disturbance. This review looks at research into the resilience and its application to energy systems and identifies similarities and differences. Starting with Holling's contribution to resilience, the development of the theory is examined and the different definitions are compared. The differences between engineering and ecological resilience are also discussed. Additionally, the review examines, on the one hand, criticism of the theory of resilience and, on the other hand, remaining questions in relation to the application of resilience, such as the system's state after the disruption. The paper subsequently examines the application of the theory of resilience to different energy systems. The review concludes with an outlook on the possibility of operationalizing resilience for energy systems.

Review article: Towards a context-driven research: a state-of-the-art review of resilience research on climate change

“…According to the adaptive complex system line of thought, the resilience of a system depends on the capacity of individual agents to cope with uncertainty and complexity. They are able to interact and self-organize, learn, and adapt (in an incremental or transformative way), thereby making the system flexible enough to absorb shocks and develop even in the face of drastic changes (Jesse et al, 2019).…”

Review article: Towards a context-driven research: a state-of-the-art review of resilience research on climate change

“…CC BY 4.0 License. adapt (in an incremental or transformative way) making the system flexible in absorbing shocks and developing in face of changes (Jesse, Heinrichs & Kuchshinrichs, 2019).…”

“…CC BY 4.0 License. Hoekstra, Bredenhoff-Bijlsma & Krol, 2018;Jesse, Heinrichs & Kuchshinrichs, 2019;Dryzek & Pickering, 2019). It is an urgent issue that emerges from an ambiguity in Holling's SES approach (Redman, 2014).…”

“…The notion of energy injustice refers to current energy systems that distribute the ecological and economic benefits and burdens of energy systems in unfair ways; dominate, degrade and devalue certain stakeholders; and exclude certain agents from processes that govern the benefits, burdens and recognitions (Jenkins et al, 2016;Heffron & McCauley, 2017). The transformative resilience of energy systems, which is tied up with the notion of 'energy justice', refers to agents' negation of a fossil-based energy system and its oligarchical power structure; and the creation of a renewable-based system, energy commons and collaboratives beyond the energy establishment (Acosta et al, 2018;Jesse, Heinrichs & Kuchshinrichs, 2019). In other words, the sustainable energy transformation comes with transformative resilience and energy justice that typically assumes the form of resistance to the most hegemonic powers (VanderPlaat, 2016;Bourbeau & Ryan, 2018;Juncos, 2018;Schwartz, 2018).…”

“…administrative, economic, technological and environmental factors -, with the right governance interventions and reconfigurations of the ecological and social underpinnings of SES(Pizzo, 2015;Weichselgartner & Kelman, 2015;VanderPlaat, 2016;Hughes, 2017;Jesse, Heinrichs & Kuchshinrichs, 2019). Currently, the sustainable energy transformation is no doubt the best example of such a reconfiguration(Park et al, 2012;De Haan & Rotmans, 2018).…”