Essential services, like water and electricity, underpin modern life. Disruption in service delivery exposes critical inter-dependency, ranging from community level to the national economy. Therefore essential service providers, such as energy utilities, have a duty of care to ensure resilient service delivery. Resilience is the ability of people, institutions and systems to adapt, survive, and thrive despite acute shocks or chronic stresses. Policy can promote pre-emptive and holistic resilience practices among essential service providers.