Asset management can be applied to help electric utilities address aging power transmission and distribution infrastructure, reliability and business risk challenges in an organized and orderly fashion. Applied correctly, asset management explicitly recognizes that the utility's equipment exists to serve its customers and that all decisions regarding its use and care are made on the basis of business needs and profitability in performing the utility's mission.
When one is interested in knowing how asset management works to benefit their companies, it is very important to get to know how asset management really works. This includes the services that asset management employs to handle assets, the costs of utilizing asset management services, the available software designed to manage assets, even the qualifications of certified asset management advisors.
Most electric utilities in North America have significant portions of their electrical infrastructure that are “aged” – composed mostly of equipment that has been in service so long that wear and tear have had an obvious effect, but not so deteriorated that immediate replacement is obviously needed.
Asset management focuses on all aspects of managing aging assets well, from a far-reaching look at aging and its impacts on the T&D system, customer reliability, and the utility’s bottom line, to the various means through
which utilities can manage aging, it’s costs and effects in an efficient manner. Asset management includes: comprehensive inspection programs, condition assessment and tracking, maintenance management, life-extension technologies, strategic planning and prioritization, and refurbishment and replacement policies.
It is very important to know that the asset lifecycle has four broad stages that asset management firms take into consideration. Planning and procurement, including carefully considering which to procure, ordering these and even receiving and testing these are salient features of asset management. Managing the daily operations of assets enabling companies to maximize productivity is also an important feature of asset management. Knowing how much it costs to operate the company and comparing it to the profits and the existing assets make for balanced returns and even more commonly returns to the part of the companies.
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