Navigating a Perfect Storm of Utility Asset Challenges with Decision Analytics
Are you confident your utility is directing its limited resources to the activities that deliver the greatest value?
It’s no longer business as usual in the utility sector these days. In this rapidly evolving industry, decision making is becoming more complex and crucial than ever, especially with respect to asset life cycles and capital planning. To meet these challenges, utilities need to become more strategic about asset investments. Copperleaf recently partnered with Industry Dive to explore this question and help guide utilities down the path toward effective asset management.
At the core of the ISO 55000 asset management standard is the idea that assets exist to generate value for the organization and its stakeholders. What constitutes value will differ for each organization, but generally depends on an organization’s strategic objectives, definitions and quantifications of risk, and the needs of its stakeholders.
Risk is an important consideration in decision-making, but asset management is about delivering value.
Richard Edwards
Past-President
Institute of Asset Management
Once all of the different criteria that deliver value to the organization are defined, a Value Framework provides an objective, consistent and practical way to assess the benefits of any project or investment so that trade-offs can be made between very different types of investments.
We’re primarily viewed as providers of reliability, so there are investments we are required to make. But how and when we do that is critical for asset management.
Javier Fernandez
CFO
Omaha Public Power District
Utility planning processes are also becoming more dynamic and integrated across departments. The same asset management tools and strategies that can support long-term capital investment strategies can also enhance the yearly or quarterly capital planning and budget approval process. Decision analytics can help a utility shift toward value-based capital investment decisions and clarify potential trade-offs for decisions across departments, to ensure that investments are in the overall best interests of the utility.
When the finance department has data-driven decision analytics, they can see early signs of systemic degradation – lower margins or higher O&M costs. They can ring the alarm bell earlier and start on the solution before operations feels the pain.
Javier Fernandez
CFO
Omaha Public Power District
Decision analytics helps utilities make enterprise-wide investment decisions that can yield significant immediate and future results. In this playbook, Copperleaf and Industry Dive examine the utility industry’s current asset challenges with valuable insights from some key industry thought leaders.
To learn more about decision analytics and the critical role it plays in improving decision-making and investment planning processes, download our playbook here.