Making Performance Evaluation Useful in an Electricity Distribution Network
An electricity distribution network operator with 1.1 million customers has had an ISO 55001-certified AMS for two years. Its performance dashboard reports 18 KPIs, including 'number of maintenance jobs completed', 'number of training hours', and 'percentage of assets with condition data'. The board receives the dashboard quarterly but has not changed any decision based on it. SAIDI worsened by 9% last year, and the regulator has opened a review. The asset management team says the KPIs are 'all we can get from the systems'. Data for condition is 68% complete for primary substations but only 22% for overhead lines; the last internal audit found no evidence that measurement equipment is calibrated and no analysis of data quality. The management review minutes from last quarter list only KPI values, with no decisions or actions. The AMS manager must present a revised monitoring and measurement approach to the executive team.
1. Critique the existing KPI set against ISO 55001 performance evaluation requirements and propose a balanced set of asset management performance indicators.
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The KPI set is activity-based and disconnected from outcomes. 'Jobs completed' and 'training hours' measure effort, not asset performance or risk. 'Percentage of assets with condition data' measures data collection, not data quality or decision use. ISO 55001 clause 9.1 requires monitoring, measurement, analysis, and evaluation against asset management objectives and the performance and effectiveness of the AMS. The dashboard should show whether the AMS is achieving its objectives.
A balanced set should cover:
- Service and customer: SAIDI, SAIFI, interruptions affecting critical customers.
- Asset and risk: critical asset failure rate, risk exposure reduction, maintenance backlog for critical assets, condition profile.
- Cost and lifecycle: lifecycle cost per km, reactive versus planned ratio, cost per interruption.
- Compliance: statutory inspections completed, calibration compliance.
- AMS health: data quality index for critical assets, corrective action closure, audit findings.
Each KPI needs a definition, formula, data source, frequency, target, and owner. The 9% SAIDI deterioration should be a headline with causal analysis, not just a number. The board needs fewer, better indicators and a clear line from KPI movement to decision.
2. The team says better data is unavailable. How should the AMS manager address the data quality gap without stopping performance evaluation?
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Do not pause evaluation for perfect data. Define data quality dimensions - completeness, accuracy, timeliness, consistency - and assign a confidence rating to each KPI. For primary substations, prioritize calibration and condition data; for overhead lines, use sample-based inspections, age-based risk proxies, and fault records rather than claiming full condition knowledge. Document assumptions and uncertainty in the dashboard.
Use leading indicators that are available now: overdue inspections, defect backlog, repeat faults, and work-order compliance. Set a 12-month data improvement plan with owners and measure progress. ISO 55001's data and information management requirements expect information to be fit for purpose and controlled, not exhaustive. The executive should see which decisions are supported by high versus low confidence data, and the regulator should see a credible improvement trajectory. This is more defensible than waiting for a perfect asset register while SAIDI worsens.
3. Redesign the management review so that it drives decisions. Specify inputs, outputs, and the behaviours the executive team must demonstrate.
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Inputs: status of actions from previous reviews; changes in context such as the regulator review, demand, and funding; AMS performance against objectives and KPIs; SAIDI and SAIFI causal analysis; risk and opportunity status; nonconformities and corrective actions; audit results; resource and competence issues; data quality; stakeholder feedback; and opportunities for improvement.
Outputs: decisions on objectives, resources, scope, risk treatment, improvement actions, and changes to the AMS, each with an owner and date.
Behaviours: executives must challenge assumptions, ask for risk trade-offs, choose between competing priorities, and follow up. The review should not be a KPI reading. Use a rolling agenda with pre-reads and a decision log, plus a standing item on whether the AMS remains suitable, adequate, and effective. The last minutes show no decisions - that is the core failure. The redesigned review should end with a small number of funded actions that change something, and the next review should start by checking them.