Extreme weather now number one risk for utilities

By Utility Week

Utility Week’s landmark risk report reveals extreme and unpredictable weather is the primary risk facing energy networks, trumping threats to cyber security. Read the report to learn what other key challenges the industry faces and how they might be mitigated from senior leaders in the sector.

It’s extreme weather events that now pose the number one risk to utilities and networks. That’s the principal finding of the second Utility Risk Report, published annually by Utility Week in association with risk management consultancy Marsh.

Cyber security was the biggest threat in 2022, but the increasing frequency of record-breaking storms, heatwaves and flooding has pushed climate change and its associated effects to the top of the utilities industry risk register. Cyber threats have dropped to the number two slot.

Other risks in the sector’s top five – based on a combination of perceived likelihood to occur and projected impact – include a failure of industry investment due to slow policy development, disruption to markets and supply chains as a result of international geopolitical volatility and a lack of regulatory agility in the face of market shocks.

The report also flags a persistent maturity gap in approaches to risk management across the utilities industry with just half expressing a high degree of confidence in their organisation’s ability to manage and mitigate the most significant risks on the horizon for their businesses. Further, for over two thirds (68 percent) this confidence is reliant on the build out of significant new or extended risk management capabilities in coming years.

Download the full report now to understand how perceptions of risk very across industry subsectors and what specific scenarios are of biggest concern in relation to:

Download the report now for the full story.