Let’s be honest, asset management is a niche field and not everyone’s idea of a fun read. But it’s important and we’re going to explain why in a way we hope keeps you with us for the whole article.
In our world, assets are things like dams, channels, flumes, siphons, pipes, outlets, regulators, drains and meters. These assets are physical infrastructure that deliver value by allowing us to manage and transport water to customers, the community and the environment.
Without these assets, we wouldn’t be able to harness and deliver the water that grows Victoria’s food, powers homes and businesses, nurtures our environment and provides recreational and cultural connections for our community.
We manage $2.1 billion of assets that includes seven storages, eight diversion weirs and over 1,200 kilometres of channel, pipes and drains across our region. Just like other physical assets, for example a house, we need to actively look after them to maintain their performance and value. This is where asset management comes in.
Like managing property, planned maintenance on our assets typically costs less than unplanned maintenance, but excessive planned maintenance can increase costs. We work to find the right balance and intervene at strategic points in an asset’s lifecycle to extend its service life or upgrade it.
Scott Cornish, General Manager Asset Futures said our capital plan provides a long-term outlook of the investments that are expected to maintain operation of our assets over the next 25 years.
He said our capital plan has been prepared using a combination of asset class plans, replacement and renewal planning, operational insights, and asset information.
“The day-to-day work that allows us to create our long-term plan includes maintaining records of our assets, conducting annual condition assessments, modelling expected lifespan, depreciation, and maintenance needs of assets within each class and calculating life-cycle cost of assets, which all informs our asset renewal planning,” he said.
“It’s complex and challenging work that our operations, engineering and finance teams collaborate on to achieve the best outcomes.”
With huge infrastructure modernisation programs almost complete in the Macalister, Bacchus Marsh and Werribee irrigation districts, we are shifting our focus to renewing some of our existing assets. And we have a five-year asset renewal program that sits within our capital expenditure program to inform this work.
Our asset renewal program is funded by customer pricing, and in some cases, by external grant funding from the Victorian and Australian governments.
But how do you choose which assets to renew we hear you ask? Scott says we have a tool that helps us to do this.
“The tool ranks capital investments based on risk and customer value and follows a series of prioritisation steps,” he said.
The tool:
- includes all investments that are required to achieve compliance against safety legal duties, Victorian Government requirements, business requirements and relevant industry-based guidelines
- includes investments based on nominal risk appetite across our corporate risk categories
- includes investments based on a customer value score and;
- excludes low-value investments from the risk-based prioritisation, to provide funding for our minor asset renewal programs.
“Like all good tools it helps us do the important work of developing our asset renewal program,” he said.
And a solid asset renewal program means our infrastructure is kept in good working order to continue supplying water, we strike the right balance between maximising asset lifespan and managing the risk of asset failure, we invest in upgrades to achieve compliance, operational efficiency, and our ability to meet customer service levels into the future.
Scott said over the next five years, we’ll be working on many capital projects across southern Victoria.
"We’re planning to improve the Main Southern Channel’s concrete flume, refurbish the Main Southern Channel Tunnel number 5, replace aging flume gate regulators in the Macalister Irrigation District and improve the operational facilities at Maffra Weir,” he said.
“We’ll also be replacing supply valves at Blue Rock Lake and Merrimu Lake, upgrading the spillway training wall at Melton Reservoir, upgrading walkways and ladders at our storage facilities, and continuing with our meter upgrade program.”
All these commitments are outlined in our Corporate Plan 2024-25, and we will be providing regular updates on their progress on our website and through our social media channels.
Scott said it’s going to be an exciting five years of work to deliver but he’s looking forward to the challenge.
“We’ve diligently planned the program and I’m confident we have the systems, tools and talent to get the job done well,” he said.