The rise, current position and future direction of asset management in utility industries

Ensuring the fitness for purpose of the UK's utility networks is vital to both the country and the network owners. Replacing these networks would cost many hundreds if not thousands of billions of pounds. As these assets age, high levels of investment are now required to maintain a satisfactory performance level. For example, the annual investment needed for the UK's electricity distribution network is over pound 1 billion. Hence, efficiently managing these assets is extremely important and 'asset management' is the core of the infrastructure companies' businesses. This paper reviews what is meant by the term 'asset management' and why it has risen in importance over the last few decades. The current position of asset management modelling is then described before the likely key future developments are considered.