Reporting of asset management practices by electricity distributors

Our window into an EDB’s asset management practices is through their asset management plan, or ‘AMP’. AMPs are an important source of information for understanding and assessing EDB performance and asset management processes for a wide range of stakeholders. We use information contained within the AMP in setting price-quality paths, undertaking investigations of non-compliance with quality standards, performing summary and analysis and to inform our other programmes of work. Accordingly, we have a focus on encouraging improvements to asset management reporting by EDBs, as disclosed in their AMPs, and the asset management practices that underpin this reporting.

We have prepared this paper with a focus on:

• promoting a better understanding of EDBs' asset management practices through improving how they are currently reporting those asset management practices in their AMP disclosures
• encouraging EDBs, as part of their AMP disclosures, to acknowledge and explain adverse trends in asset performance and to detail the mitigating actions being taken.

One of the ways this paper looks to encourage EDBs to improve their asset management reporting is to highlight examples of asset management reporting and practices which other EDBs may want to consider.

We expect that, because asset management is a key driver of overall performance, if the potential improvements discussed in this paper are implemented by EDBs where needed, this should lift the overall performance of all EDBs and promote the long-term benefits to consumers.

This paper was prepared using the current information disclosures (ID data, AMPs and AMP updates) available as at 2019.