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| Black & Veatch releases findings of Utility Industry Survey Black & Veatch, through its management consulting and energy businesses, announced the findings from its First Annual Strategic Directions in the Utility Industry Survey during the Edison Electric Institute's 41st Annual Financial Conference. Electric service reliability was ranked overall as the top concern facing industry respondents. The survey represents input from 240 U.S. power industry professionals, and provides specific insights into how executives and managers rank and assign relative importance to the most pressing issues currently facing their operations. The survey was administered by an independent third party, the Sierra Energy Group, the market intelligence and research arm of Energy Central. Survey respondents were broadly representative of the electric power industry in the United States, with 51 percent from investor-owned utilities (IOUs), which distribute about 75 percent of all electric power in the country; 19 percent from municipal utilities; and 30 percent from electric co-operatives (Co-ops), independent power producers (IPPs), regional transmission organizations (RTOs), and power-related consultants, and vendors. The survey, completed in late-August, identified that IOUs and municipal utilities rank the reliability of electric service and the aging workforce as two of their top three primary concerns. IOUs view service reliability as the No. 1 issue; electric infrastructure as No. 2, and the aging workforce as No. 3. Municipals view aging workforce as their No. 1 concern, reliability as No. 2, and aging infrastructure as No. 5. The survey also revealed that 47 percent of the IOU respondents regard their power generation operations as being "Near the End", "At the End", "Past" or "Well Past" their planned service lives. Some 44 percent identified their transmission operations as being in the same condition, while 51 percent of respondents also stated their electric distribution operations were in this range. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |