Phil Musser's “Power Quality and Reliability Can't Wait for Deregulation” (Global Viewpoint, December 2002) implies that utilities are inappropriately reacting to financial pressures and resorting to cost-cutting measures that, ultimately, will erode power quality and reliability.

While I agree with many of Musser's points, I believe his conclusion may be a bit extreme. Let me propose a scenario I believe more accurately reflects the environment in which most of us operate today.

As the dollar continues its downward slide against the euro and ten, and as we watch the decline in foreign capital being made available to U.S. business and industry, we are reminded daily that while the U.S. economy remains the world's largest and most advanced, it is not immune to intense global competition — for customers as well as investors.

For most electric utilities, commercial and industrial customers represent 60% to 70% of the customer base. And for utilities to be successful, they must meet the needs of these customers. Clearly, in today's environment, this suggests a need to deliver even higher levels of reliability and power quality than in the past, but at the same or lower cost. Just as it is not possible for our customers who are competing in an increasingly global marketplace to focus solely on cost or quality, so too we must improve the overall value of the service we provide.

And just how can an electric utility make good on what sounds like a Pollyannaish commitment to improve reliability while controlling costs? The answer is through investing in technology and training of personnel at an amount far above historical levels. Over the past three years, we at Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G; Newark, New Jersey, U.S.) have invested more than US$50 million in work management systems, outage management systems (OMS) and computerized maintenance management systems. We have made all these investments to support the management of new installations and maintenance work, reduce the frequency of interruptions, speed the management of outage restoration of customers if they are interrupted, and maximize the efficient utilization of personnel in accomplishing both the corrective and preventive maintenance processes. These systems use the latest available technology: enterprise systems for work management; an OMS for customer interruption and restoration status; and computer-aided dispatch (CAD) with wireless mobile data terminals for communicating information about work progress and customer status between the worker and the system.

These efforts do not end with information system development and deployment. At the end of the day, the system operates as well as the people who are trained to design, construct and maintain it. To that end, ongoing training is essential to keeping all personnel abreast of, and adept in, new and changing technologies. Continued involvement and leadership in standards making processes of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the National Electric Safety Code, the National Electrical Code, and other industry and end-use equipment standards and organizations, combined with active participation and direction of research and development efforts conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute, National Electric Energy Testing Research and Application, the Canadian Electricity Association Technologies and others ensures that the industry increases the value of its services.

Responsiveness to customer needs is one of the characteristics of an outstanding business. The fact is, that in an era of increased regulatory scrutiny of utility operations, growing business dependency upon computerization, and the associated demands for premium power quality coupled with intense global competition, utilities have no choice but to deliver higher quality power at lower costs.

Ralph Izzo, senior vice president, Utility Operations, PSE&G