Wastewater Resilience: What is it? How is it Calculated? What Does it Mean? and What is the BEST Way to Increase my Utility Resilience?

Utility Resilience is defined as the ability of a utility to absorb and/or cope with an incident, with interruption or function or, if interrupted, return to normal operations as quickly as possible. Once determined, utility resilience can be a useful metric to help a utility prepare for, respond to, remediate and effectively manage an incident in an effort to return to normal operations as soon as possible.This paper and presentation will discuss the background and definition of utility resilience; how to calculate utility resilience; the meaning of the wastewater utility resilience calculation; calculate the utility resilience for a specific wastewater utility; and highlight methods to increase utility resilience for wastewater utilities.Based upon the information provided by the resilience calculations it is clear that the Utility reviewed as part of the study is a very resilient utility. This utility very high operational resilience and is prepared for unexpected events. The financial resilience calculations indicate that the completion of their business continuity plan and GASB assessment would increase the financial resilience.The utility resilience calculation provides utilities with a relative measure of preparedness for incidents. This calculation also allows utilities to examine their operational and financial preparedness in an effort to determine where they might continue to improve and become a more resilient utility. A utility resilience index of 100 is a goal. The calculation and use of the utility resilience index provides insight for planning and training within the utility. It is NOT to be used as a utility report card.