Operations, Maintenance, and Replacement 10-year plan, 1990-1999 : 1989 Utility OM&R Comparison : A Comparison of BPA (Bonneville Power Administration) and Selected Utility Transmission, Operations and Maintenance Costs.

For the past several years, competing resource demands within BPA have forced the Agency to stretch Operations, Maintenance and Replacement (OM R) resources. There is a large accumulation of tasks that were not accomplished when scheduled. Maintenance and replacements and outages, due to material and equipment failure, appear to be increasing. BPA has made a strategic choice to increase its emphasis on OM R programs by implementing a multi-year, levelized OM R plan which is keyed to high system reliability. This strategy will require a long-term commitment of a moderate increase in staff and dollars allocated to these programs. In an attempt to assess the direction BPA has taken in its OM R programs, a utility comparison team was assembled in early January 1989. The team included representatives from BPA's Management Analysis, Internal Audit and Financial Management organizations, and operation and maintenance program areas. BPA selected four utilities from a field of more than 250 electric utilities in the US and Canada. The selection criteria generally pertained to size, with key factors including transformation capacity, load, gross revenue, and interstate transmission and/or marketing agreements, and their OM R programs. Information was gathered during meetings with managers and technical experts representing the four utilities. Subsequent exchanges of information also took place to verify findings. The comparison focused on: Transmission operations and maintenance program direction and emphasis; Organization, management and implementation techniques; Reliability; and Program costs. 2 figs., 21 tabs.