Focus on future asset planning

Focus on future asset planning

Published On 14/05/2022

We recently completed a project to define a Future Asset Planning framework under our Asset Management Big Question.

The project, delivered by an international consortium of industry and academic partners, combined three subprojects

– Asset Health, Scenario Planning and Value Framework – to develop a common Asset Investment Planning Framework.

This involved developing a generic Asset Planning Framework the industry can use to develop its thinking, agreeing a new definition of asset health to provide clarity and aide collaboration, explored how water companies can incorporate different measures into their modelling, and created a value framework building tool with 157 value measures across 18 value categories.

The research found true sustainability requires consideration of more complex mixes of value and that the industry needs to move away from purely monetised cost benefit analyses to a more holistic consideration of value. This will introduce greater levels of uncertainty, but will mean important factors such as natural and social capital are better considered in decision making.

The primary recommendation is for the industry to adopt the tools and principles the report presents. By adopting the common tools, language and approaches recommended, regulators will be more easily able to compare and benchmark approaches as the industry moves towards more complex understandings of value.