EEA Resilience Guide Updated: What’s Changed in Version 3?
In this article Asset Dynamics’ Andrew Gatland discusses recent changes to the Electricity Engineers’ Association’s Resilience Guide and implications for users of this key guidance.
The Electricity Engineers’ Association’s Resilience Guide plays an important role in shaping how New Zealand’s electricity sector thinks about emergency preparedness and infrastructure resilience. Version 3 of the Guide, published in December 2025, significantly expands on Version 2 (2022), with a greater volume of real case studies, stronger integration of the Resilience Management Maturity Assessment Tool (RMMAT), and deeper guidance on how resilience decisions should be integrated with general asset management decision-making. We believe that this makes the document more useful than ever for electrical infrastructure owners.
Resilience Management Maturity Assessment Tool
One of the most important changes is the elevation of resilience maturity and continuous improvement. While the previous version of the Guide included the Resilience Management Maturity Assessment Tool (RMMAT), it was positioned as an optional diagnostic process. In Version 3 the RMMAT is better integrated into the content of the document, with specific linkages drawn between topics covered in the guide and assessment questions. The tool has been updated with additional questions reflecting lessons learned from recent extreme weather events, clearer maturity level definitions, and stronger expectations around evidence.
Organisations are encouraged to use the RMMAT regularly to track progress over time and to support reporting to boards, regulators, and other stakeholders. In 2023 Asset Management Plan disclosures, 12 of New Zealand’s 29 electricity distributors reported using the RMMAT to inform asset management planning and emergency preparedness.
Scope of Resilience
The scope of resilience has also expanded significantly. Version 2 focused primarily on natural hazards and traditional emergency response scenarios. Version 3 recognises a much broader risk environment and introduces new sections on cyber security, pandemic management, volcanic hazards, fire risk, and support for community hubs. These additions reflect lessons learned from COVID-19, Cyclone Gabrielle, and growing cyber threats, and they acknowledge that resilience failures can be driven by workforce availability, supply chain fragility, or system interdependencies rather than asset damage alone.
Integration with Asset Management Decision-Making
Another key change is the stronger integration with asset management and investment decision-making. Version 3 links resilience considerations to asset lifecycle planning, risk-based prioritisation, and capital and operational investment decisions. It recognises that traditional cost-benefit analysis can undervalue resilience investments, particularly for high impact, low probability (HILP) events, and provides guidance on making decisions where benefits are uncertain, but consequences are severe. This is particularly relevant in the context of economic regulation, where significant investment proposals may need to be justified through customised price-path (CPP) applications or default price-path (DPP) reopeners.
Updated Guidance on 4Rs
The treatment of the 4Rs has also evolved. While all four remain important, Version 3 places noticeably greater emphasis on Reduction and Readiness. The role of upstream activities such as network hardening, critical spares strategies, workforce capability, and supply chain resilience are discussed as efficient ways to improve outcomes during response and recovery. Discussion of recovery is also expanded to include “building back better” where appropriate, rather than simply restoring assets to their pre-event state.
Leadership and Governance for Resilience
Governance expectations are clearer as well. In Version 2, leadership and accountability were largely implicit. Version 3 presents resilience as an enterprise-wide responsibility, and outlines the roles of boards, executive teams, and senior managers. Resilience is no longer presented as solely an engineering or emergency management function, but as a strategic capability that must be embedded across planning, operations, finance, and risk management.
Conclusion
Version 3 of the EEA’s Resilience Guide will continue to be a valuable resource for the industry as electrical infrastructure becomes increasingly critical, and the probability of extreme weather events grows because of climate change. Wider consideration of other HILP events will challenge the industry to collaboratively develop creative solutions to build more resilient infrastructure and organisations.
Need an Independent Perspective on Resilience?
Asset Dynamics provides independent RMMAT assessments to help infrastructure owners understand their current resilience maturity and identify practical, prioritised improvement actions. Our Resilience Specialist Grant Hogan, was involved in the original development of the EEA Resilience Guide and led the development of the RMMAT tool itself. With extensive experience delivering structured, efficient, and evidence-based assessments, Asset Dynamics supports clients to turn resilience assessment into actionable improvement plans.