Organisations in the energy sector increasingly face complex disruptions and long-term stresses that threaten their ability to deliver essential services. While resilience has emerged as a key concept for addressing such challenges, it remains conceptually fragmented and methodologically inconsistent, particularly within the context of critical entities more commonly known by their previous terminology, critical infrastructures. This study addresses this gap by developing a framework for assessing resilience in the critical entity energy.

Using a Design Science Research (DSR) approach, the research integrates theoretical insights from resilience literature with empirical input from industry observations and semi-structured interviews. First, a systems-oriented definition of resilience is established. Subsequently, relevant resilience criteria and indicators are identified and structured into a multi-criteria assessment framework, grounded in the Technical, Organisational, Social, and Economic (TOSE) dimensions, which have been identified as the aspects of resilience.

The resulting framework, with its four aspects, comprises 19 criteria and 89 indicators. Enabling organisations to systematically evaluate their resilience across interconnected aspects, thereby supporting strategic and operational decision-making in asset-intensive energy systems. Evaluation through expert interviews confirms the framework’s relevance, novelty, and usability, highlighting its potential to translate the abstract concept of resilience into a comprehensive practical approach.

The resulting framework aims to provide a structured, transferable, and practice-oriented approach to resilience assessment for critical energy entities. A mechanism for continuously reviewing, expanding and refining that list, as the risks and vulnerabilities evolve.