Europe and the United Kingdom (UK) are at the forefront of Asset Management for
water utilities. This is primarily due to the fact of privatization of water utilities in the UK. The
UK is currently in the third generation of the Asset Management procedures and has well defined
methods for identifying and managing assets. In the United Kingdom (UK), large scale Asset
Management has been practiced for approximately 20 years when computer modeling and pipe
inspection techniques allowed the current performance and impact of potential improvements to
water or sewerage networks to be evaluated for whole systems. In the United States (US), it is a different story. There are a number of forms that Asset
Management takes in the US including SSES Programs, Infiltration / Reduction Programs,
Capital Improvement Programs and CMOM, flow monitoring, SCADA Systems, etc., but very
few public utility infrastructure owners have a true Asset Management Program in place.
Furthermore, Risk Assessment as used in the UK is now only beginning to be understood and
used in the US. The Risk Assessment in the US is done in terms of Criticality of the system
components and the effects it will have on the users and public in general should the component
of the system go off line. In the US, Risk Assessment is generally not used for investment
decisions when it comes to Capital Improvement Programs, but is beginning to be used in the
Operations and Maintenance of the systems. This paper reviews Asset Management practices
in the United States and in the UK, and compares the two sets of practices. The review also
identifies key business and technical practices, how Asset Management is perceived by the owners
on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and will identify lessons learned from the UK for the North
American utility infrastructure owners and engineers. Includes 21 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 290 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 17 |
| Published : | 06/01/2006 |
