The electric utility industry in North America spends more than US$5 billion annually for information technology (IT), in addition to the amounts spent on electronic instruments and automation equipment for field and plant use. Worldwide, the total approaches US$13.5 billion.

Our estimates of IT-related spending within operations and engineering - in the T&D areas alone - represent more than one-third of the total utility enterprise-wide IT budget.

The biggest application areas within engineering departments are computer-aided design/computer- aided engineering (CAD/CAE) and, more recently, electronic document management systems (EDMS), project management, T&D construction projects and distribution automation components. Together, these areas represent more than US$1 billion with more than one-half of that amount coming from engineering department budgets.

On a worldwide basis, this figure grows to about US$3 billion. The figure is much higher when you factor in the engineering projects underway in developing nations and expenses for IT related to power generation activities.

On the operations side, energy management systems/supervisory control and data acquisition (EMS/SCADA), distribution automation, demand-side management, substation automation and management of facilities, assets and work activities account for more than US$750 million in North America and close to US$1.5 billion worldwide. If we add in automatic meter reading and service dispatch activities, including modern fleet management systems and tools, the amount spent for IT related directly to North American utility operational management is more than US$1 billion. Worldwide, the amount now exceeds US$2.5 billion.

As reported in a new study of IT expenditures, based on surveys of more than 50 electric utilities from 12 countries, the biggest share of IT expenditures is spent on internal staff to support and operate the systems (Fig. 1).

The study also requested that infor-mation system (IS) managers indicate the extent to which cooperative discussion, planning, funding and technical support was being provided for technical (engineering and operations) computer systems and usage. Their consensus views are depicted in Table 1. When asked what key applications were already implemented at their utilities, IS managers indicated EMS/SCADA at the top of the list along with finance and accounting. Almost all other listed applications were from the business side of the utility.

However, for software efforts now underway, a range of operational applications were listed, including customer installation and maintenance scheduling, automated mapping/facilities management (AM/FM) systems and work management. On the next level, payroll and customer information systems were mentioned along with distribution automation.

As far as applications now under consideration, automatic meter reading far outdistanced other applications, such as demand management, marking information systems and work management. EDMS and demand-side management were also in the works at several utilities.

Based on the budget information provided in our survey, most IS managers now believe that their budgets will either remain the same or will grow over the 1996-1998 period. Operations and engineering personnel should work closely with IS groups to help guide and shape the utility's technological direction.

If information technology is to be treated as the strategic asset it should be, and as a tactical weapon to help ensure future utility marketplace success, then IS managers must become even more knowledgeable about the "gold mine" of opportunity that can be found in the technical side of the electric utility information technology base.

From my industry research viewpoint, the need for top-level and mid-level managers from operations, engineering and IS to cooperatively plan for the use of information technology and share in the established utility information services budgets is critical. These will become two of the most important components of successful operations for the market-driven utility.