Understanding and building resilience against physical and natural threats to energy infrastructure

The reliable operation of the infrastructure underlying the provision of energy services is critical for supporting a modern quality of life. While energy infrastructure undergoes a transformation to increasingly incorporate cleaner energy resources, it is already experiencing disruptions to its operation from the effects of physical and natural threats such as extreme weather events. Further, the continued progression of climate change is expected to both intensify and increase the frequency of these events, which energy infrastructure must be able to withstand. This focus issue, ‘ Physical and Natural Threats to Energy Infrastructure and Systems ’, presents recent research that details the interaction between extreme weather events and the operation and planning of future regional energy infrastructure, with many of the lessons learned transferable across threat types. Specifically, the articles in this issue address two themes. First, to improve our understanding of the types and extents of how extreme weather events impact one or more assets of regional energy infrastructure. Second, to improve our understanding of how to plan such infrastructure to be resilient against these impacts while meeting clean energy transition goals. As regional entities engage in planning the transformation of their energy infrastructure, proactive planning that accounts for the potential of intensified threats from climate change-driven extreme weather events is critical to ensure that future energy systems are not only cleaner but also more resilient against disruption than current energy systems.