Strategies for implementing IT support for asset management at electric utilities

The last ten to twenty years have seen a steadily growing awareness across industries of the benefits of proper asset management, as well as the obvious disadvantages of poor management of assets. This awareness is specifically apparent in the Power Industry, with an aging infrastructure and workforce coupled with economic pressures enforced by reregulation and the current economic downturn. Obviously, an apparent tool for utilities seeking to improving efficiency and effectiveness of asset management strategies is the implementation of IT-systems in support of the operational processes. To investigate current state of the practice regarding FT systems for asset management a survey has been conducted among a number of midsized utilities, and the paper presents the preliminary results of this study. The empirical data for the study comes not only from electric utilities, but also from the pulp and paper industry thereby providing excellent opportunities for benchmarking and comparison across industries. Interestingly, the preliminary findings show large differences in both chosen strategies for asset management as well as use of IT systems in support of the operational processes. The survey also shows that the utilities have chosen very different strategies for improving their asset management processes. In addition, the utilities have very differing priorities when it comes to implementation of IT systems for asset management. In short, five specific areas providing opportunity for improvement regarding IT system use have been identified. These are: asset documentation, resource management, production management, workflow management and maintenance planning tools. Of further interest are the differences between how these areas of improvement are approached among the utilities and pulp and paper industry, respectively. The paper provides, based on the data from the survey, an analysis and discussion on strategies for asset management as well as IT system implementation based on the identified areas of opportunity.