The primary task of an electricity delivery utility invariably involves ensuring uninterrupted power supply to maximum number of subscribers while keeping the cost of transmission low.
Proper transmission of electricity from the distribution stations to the ultimate users (big industrial establishments, commercial customers and residential customers) is the basic aim of the electricity delivery company. These companies require developing and modernizing the electricity delivery infrastructure time to time to make sure that cheap and uninterrupted electricity is delivered to the doorstep of their customers in quick time. Key Performance Indicators in this regard help electricity company management in catering to those issues that play a very important role in the success of overall process of electricity delivery.
From perspective of an delivery utility, the KPIs can be arranged under four major perspectives. Reliability Perspective takes into account KPIs like System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), System Average Duration Frequency Index (SADFI), Burning Rate of Public Lighting, etc. Financial and Collection Perspective comprises of KPIs like % improvement in taken collection, % reduction in debts over 30 days, % reduction in unallocated transactions, etc. Operations Perspective provides an overview of the firm"s operations with KPIs in the form of % increase in subsidized household electric connections, metering efficiency, etc. Finally, Employee Perspectives can be had through KPIs such as lost time injury severity rate, lost time injury frequency rate, average training time per employee.
The management body of an electricity company has to cater to wide range of challenges in the field of electricity delivery. Development and management of such a huge infrastructure required for electricity delivery in one of the prime challenges in front of the company. This infrastructure requires a very huge fund investment to start with and time to time maintenance of this infrastructure (transformers, high voltage lines, underground cables, etc.) also demands great efforts and expenses.
Setting new electricity lines, their maintenance and increasing the level of utilization of available assets are some of the common challenges of the company. Obtaining technically competent workforce is another issue with which an electricity delivery company has to deal with great care. Uncertainty of electricity load may sometimes result in huge losses and long electricity interruptions so it needs to increased its load factor with decent regularity. This would require correct forecasting of demand and in between fluctuations on the part of the company. Integrating new tools and technologies to enhance the performance level of employees and organization operations may sometimes be a cumbersome task for the management as the employees are somewhat reluctant to these changes.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) arranged in a balanced scorecard helps in highlighting those key areas that are critically aligned in the operations of an electricity delivery company. To cater to the day to day challenges, the company requires adopting a formalized approach for performance management. KPIs help in knowing the reliability of the operations through measures like System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), System Average Duration Frequency Index (SADFI), and the like. Number of training sessions conducted for employees to make them understand the benefits of new techniques and advanced tools, are some of measures which can be taken by the company to effectively deal with performance issues.