Electrical Utility wins the 2003 Maintenance Engineering Excellence Management Awards with support from The Asset Partnership

The challenge: Powercor Australia's (PCA) electricity distribution network consists of over 80,000 circuit kilometres, 502,000 poles, 63 zone substations and 67,500 distribution transformers in an area covering 150,000 square kilometres from Melbourne's western suburbs to the borders of South Australia and New South Wales .   In 1997, PCA developed an Asset Management Strategy (AMS) that covered all the steps involved in the asset life cycle and identified all the major processes.   Asset Maintenance Policies were also developed using Reliability-centred Maintenance (RCM) II for all major network asset groups.

The approach: The Asset Partnership worked with PCA Network to enhance and update the original AMS, and to develop a new reporting and planning framework for the planning and monitoring of Network Asset Management activities.   This included new planning tools, Network Asset Management Plans (updated annually), describing the full range network asset management activities including planning, development and maintenance and Network Element Management Plans detail PCA's approach to the life cycle management of key asset groups.

The outcome:

• Greater focus on meeting corporate, regulatory and other stakeholder objectives for asset management
• Clearly assigned managerial accountability for Network Asset Management
• Defined and focused performance measures
• Clearly stated and documented plans and objectives so that costs, risks and performance are effectively managed
• Greater integration and co - ordination between functional groups

For this work, Powercor, supported by The Asset Partnership won Australia's leading maintenance management excellence award from the Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia

The Powercor Team with Phil Clarke of The Asset Partnership (left)

" Powercor Australia is delighted to have received these Australian Maintenance Engineering Excellence Awards in recognition of the culmination of many years of hard work to implement best practice asset management. The ongoing support of our partners, The Asset Partnership, has been vital to our success."