Utility providers run up against a unique set of circumstances as they look to improve or replace their systems in urban environments. Two specific challenges include competition for underground real estate and an increasing need for resilient infrastructure.

Underground Real Estate

Utility providers and service authorities are dealing with aging infrastructure, which is taking up valuable space. Pipelines, conduit, cables, and tunnels are all examples of infrastructure that could have been constructed more than 50 years ago but have since run through their useful life. This creates a secondary problem: underground real estate. With limited capacity, antiquated infrastructure is still taking up space underground, limiting available options for new and more advanced infrastructure. It's a common practice for many utilities in urban areas to abandon their service lines in place. This makes it that much more difficult to find room for new utilities, and figure out which utilities are live and which are dead while performing any sort of infrastructure work.

Proactive Resilience Measures

The second consideration that’s becoming more prevalent, especially in coastal areas, is climate resilience. Utility providers are considering how to protect their systems from frequent flood events and storms, extreme heat, and extreme winds. There’s an increasing need for infrastructure that stands up against these impactful natural elements.

Creating a utility system that has climate adaptation as its driving force is key for utility providers, specifically energy companies. If power is out, it impacts everyone and poses serious risks to some of the most vulnerable community members, including insulin-dependent individuals who lose their ability to refrigerate their medication and elderly citizens and young infants who have difficulty regulating their body temperature and become more susceptible to overheating or becoming too cold. The bottom line is that a reliable energy source is critical to a society, and making sure that energy source is protected against natural and manmade hazards is a key consideration when planning upgrades and new infrastructure.

Utility providers are considering how to protect their systems from frequent flood events and storms, extreme heat, and extreme winds. There’s an increasing need for infrastructure that stands up against these impactful natural elements."Rahul Parab and Sarah Meskunas

Asset Management

Just like everyone else, utility companies are limited by budget and must determine which challenges to tackle first given limited resources, whether that be allocating additional funds for costly underground real estate or creating protections for existing systems. This is where asset management can come into play.

Employing an asset management strategy can help utility providers prioritize where to spend their resources. Without taking a holistic look at what gaps exist in systems, it can be challenging to determine which systems need repair, which need to be replaced, or where additional resilience measures need to be taken. Being proactive in this area can help protect systems—and by proxy, communities—so that when these coastal areas are impacted by storms or other disasters, the systems are still operational.