United States: Asset Management Program For Electric Utilities – Coming to a Utility near You?

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies.  Recently, U.S. utilities have begun to examine the use of ISO 55001 which is an ISO standard that provides certification for utility asset management programs.

Asset management programs involve an evaluation of the current "maturity" of utility's facilities as compared to a standard condition.  This analysis is used to assist in the comparison of the "as-is" condition of utility facilities to the "to-be" condition necessary to continue the provision of safe, reliable service at just and reasonable rates.  Third party analysts are often used to provide the assessment of the condition of the utility's facilities and suggest what upgrades, retirements or replacements are necessary.

Internationally, United Kingdom utilities have implemented asset management certification programs pursuant to regulatory requirements.  In the Middle East, ISO certification is viewed as a badge of honor and superiority to non-certified entities.  In the U.S. market, utilities have been slow to adopt the certification process.

Support for ISO 55001 certification comes in the form of ensuring reliability of service.  The utility that can achieve the certification can legitimately assert to regulators that it should receive recovery of its investment in reliability enhancing facilities, along with an authorized rate of return, for improving and maintaining its system to the long term benefit of its customers.  Those not sold on the idea (and the time and cost of certification) insist that utility management can maintain facilities through normal oversight and operation without needing  third party review and certification.

Implementation of the ISO 55001 management practices is estimated to take approximately 18 months, with full ISO 55001 certification being a three to five year process.  While this seems like a significant commitment on the part of a utility, the time and expense involved in conducting the analysis and implementing the results is likely significantly less than the cost of forced outages on a utility's system.

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