ELECTRIC UTILITY RESOURCES AND ORGANIZATION

The huge cost and the fact that the system must literally extend everywhere that the utility does business, means that many people view the power system as the electric utility itself.

But in addition to that power system, electric utilities also employ numerous very skilled workers and specialists without whom that power system could not function. These include power engineers, line workers, power plant operators, regulatory practices attorneys, customer service representatives, equipment troubleshooters, power line surveyors, maintenance technicians, and many others. Traditional regulated electric utilities had about one employee for every 200 customers. Downsizing and productivity improvements due to deregulation and modern business pressures have improved that ratio to about one employee for every 400 customers. To a great extent these people are the electric utility, for it could not function without their skills and dedication.

These people work within each utility’s operating infrastructure, consisting of control centers, engineering departments, meter reading systems and meter departments, equipment and repair offices, line trucks and repair crews, billing systems and information technology (data processing) systems, and a host of other resources required to keep the power system in prime shape to deliver the power required by its customers.

Although there was a great deal of variation in organization, the traditional vertically integrated electric utility was typically organized into divisions along the lines described below. Although utilities were greatly re-structured and therefore reorganized as the industry deregulated.