Asset Management Optimizes Utilities' Equipment and Infrastructure

Multiple challenges continue to threaten the smooth operation of utility companies. Asset management is a major challenge when maintaining mission-critical equipment and infrastructure.    

FREMONT, CA: Companies within the utility sector provide services such as water, electricity, and gas to households and businesses. The power and energy industry created a total of £86.6 billion in 2018, and the UK economy also supports 620,000 jobs.

There are several challenges facing the utility sector, however, which threaten to thwart smooth operations. Additionally, maintaining aging infrastructure and mission-critical equipment can only be challenging with effective asset management.

Operational challenges faced within the utility industry: Utilities are no exception to on-demand services and instant access in today's world. Households across the UK expect their access to water, gas, and electricity to be instantaneous and faultless. And, as long as utility procedures run smoothly, there should be no problem.

The impact of issues, however, is significant when they occur and disrupt output. Disruption affects not only customers' use of services but also companies' bottom line through payouts and infrastructure maintenance.

The failure of gas and electricity utility providers to meet guaranteed service standards led to a massive payout of £29 million from 2014-2018.

Utility services are adversely affected by these challenges, but maintaining and managing assets should not be overlooked.

The power and utility sector needs many types of assets, including gas pipelines, substations, storage wells, electrical grids, dams, distribution lines, and transmission lines. In addition, there are data sets, facilities, buildings, and fleets to consider.

Production-critical assets result in service production loss, negatively impacting overall profitability.

How asset management can resolve utility sector challenges: It is possible to improve asset management and maintenance across entire operations when an asset management tool is implemented by industries and organizations that heavily rely on their assets.

Enabling field-based workers to access real-time asset data: Data collection and storage in one centralized system is one of the major advantages of asset management tools for utility operations. A holistic overview of all assets is possible when this data is readily accessible to workers, managers, and technicians. For workers on the field, it is especially useful.

An organization's most critical assets, such as transmission lines and towers, are handled by field workers. The technicians are appropriately qualified to maintain and repair aging infrastructure, thereby minimizing the risk of failures and outages. In the absence of the right data, field staff will be able to respond only reactively. When a reactive approach is taken, high repair costs can result, as well as service interruptions and operations delays.

How asset management can resolve utility sector challenges: Using asset management tools can effectively manage and maintain mission-critical equipment across entire operations in industries and organizations that depend heavily on assets.

Enabling field-based workers to access real-time asset data: The ability to collect and store real-time data in one centralized system is a major benefit of deploying asset management tools in utility operations. This data provides workers, managers, and technicians with an overview of all valuable assets and speeds up workflow processes. Field workers can particularly benefit from it.

To calculate asset ROI: Keeping track of assets from procurement to disposal allows users to determine how valuable they are to a company's operations. At the end of an asset's life cycle, decision-makers can determine whether it is worth disposing of or replacing by knowing its return on investment.