Restructuring of the electric power industry is changing all the rules. The power grid is experiencing increasing transmission bottlenecks. Open access and increasing end-consumer demand for reliable electricity has far outpaced system capacity. The level of investment in new or upgraded transmission facilities is low due to uncertainty about regulatory approval for the recovery of the investment, and siting and approval for these new projects is currently very difficult.
Finally, one of the major goals in restructuring this industry is to provide end-consumers a choice of electricity providers. The stakes are huge. The electric power industry in the U.S. alone is estimated to be $224 billion in annual revenue. Today, there are more than 150 K miles of high-voltage (AC) transmission lines in the U.S. Success in this new world of energy delivery requires new strategies coupled with an execution discipline that drives operational excellence while maintaining compliance with governmental safety and environmental regulations.
Energy delivery is focused on four key operational strategies:
- Maintaining system reliability
- Lowering O & M costs
- Improving customer service levels
- Increasing cost effective use of assets.
The world for T & D is changing:
- RTOs
- recovery of new system investments
- restructuring
- performance-based regulation
- transmission bottlenecks.
Energy delivery is a regulated business that is being restructured and will face competitive and regulatory pressures like never before. Rate-based regulation is an artifact in the evolution to system expansion, customer choice, and the use of service level agreements. Success in this new energy delivery market requires new operational strategies focused on reducing the cost of energy delivery, while maintaining system reliability and improving the productivity of the workforce.
EAM Solutions help drive Operational Excellence and increase your return on assets (ROA). It drives improved system availability-more revenue and sustains lower operational costs-better margins.
Typical Benefits From an EAM Solution
Higher system reliability due to:
- Shorter planned outages
- Fewer unplanned outages
- Lower variability of performance.
Lower O & M cost due to:
- Lower labor hours
- Lower spare parts inventory
- Lower cost of materials.
Improved customer service due to:
- Better scheduling of work and work crews to service requests
- Greater ability to fulfill Service Level Agreements
- Higher probability of completing work order on first visit.
Improved capability to expand system due to:
- Improved integration of work orders to customer service systems (CIS/CRM)
- Improved integration of field design activities with asset data (GIS)
- Improved efficiency of managing contract service organization.
