Preparing for tomorrow - power for all!

The electric industry has evolved dramatically during more than 100 years of its existence. Every industry can typically be characterised by a life cycle from infancy through maturity to possible demise or revitalisation. The power industry has been characterised by early infancy (1880s through 1900s), teenage rapid technological change (1900-1920), early adulthood business consolidation (1920-1940), and mature evolution (1940-1970).

The 1970s and 1980s have been an era of turbulence and reaction to a changing social, political, and economic world - while the industry settled into a seemingly technological plateau in the 1990s and the early 2000s. The power industry will continue to see technological change, which may be a little slow in terms of hardware but highly volatile in induction of software. Everything may convert from the dumb status to smart equipment's. Additionally, we may also be looking towards a quick journey from around the corner Smart Grids to the as yet distant Wireless Power - something akin to the 3-C technology in communications and the cellular world that has changed the complexion in that sector to the advantage of the customer. However, the key issue for the 2000s is the development of utility business strategies for serving more knowledgeable and mature end-use customer demands, through high quality and least-cost service, in the rapidly changing business environment. The utility power industry, on the other hand, has an exciting future as it evolves to meet these needs.

All of a sudden, besides other pre-requisites, it was seen that utility planning was of foremost importance and nearly made-up the backbone of the industry. And the most important ingredient to successful utility planning, however, is creative thought in developing better ways to aggressively serve the customer. The customer has the need for energy, and electricity is one method of serving this energy need - specially in the developed world, where other sources too vie for the business. The customer requires efficient, economic, convenient, and high-quality service, and the requirements of that service can only be met by electrical energy. Consequently, pressure on the power utilities would continue to be immense in the present and the years to come. Changes are also expected in the present configuration of management of the power sector with the provinces joining in a big way. Sindh's aspirations to generate electrical energy through its coal reserves is an apt example. Such changes are welcome in case these add on to affordable means of power generation.

On the other hand, political, social, environmental, and regulatory forces influence utility planning. These forces establish the boundaries and level of the business playing field. The boundaries so set are constantly changing, sometimes creating obstacles or mostly opportunities. The turbulent era of the 1970s and 1980s nurtured these influences. Thus, a new utility industry emerged, where aggressive business creativity and flexibility were necessary success elements for the future. As consequence, there has been an increased emphasis by consumers, regulatory agencies, and investors on low-cost, high-quality electric service. A focus has thus emerged on utility projects with contained business risks.