As much of the world’s utility industry has transformed itself from being primarily services-oriented to being mainly driven by asset management, there have emerged many who are critical of the style and substance of this changeover.

But, is this criticism always justified?

Most utilities in the new competitive environment now focus on managing their network as effectively as possible with a keen awareness of the market penalties to be imposed for poor reliability and availability. Given this objective, in the end they will most probably emerge as better organizations - even if quite different from their former selves.

For example, in the past many utilities have been guided by strong conservatism and reluctance to change technologies as there was little motivation to do things differently than before. However, the typical utility model of today is actively looking toward new technologies as one of the means of better managing its facilities and of getting a better return on investments.

Indeed, among the most interesting and highly-appreciated presentations given at the recent INSULATOR 2000 Conference in Barcelona involved a utility engineer from Australia discussing how the new electricity marketplace in that country had changed decision-making criteria regarding selection and maintenance of outdoor insulation. Many of these changes, clearly inspired by the rules of competition, have created markets for new technical solutions and opened doors which in the past were mostly closed.

Seen from this perspective, a utility whose focus is on getting the most from their asset base is actually one which is most likely to support research and development - even if this work is no longer done mostly in-house. This is clearly a positive development as it will foster and support more innovation by suppliers to the industry.