PCCA Journal 4th Quarter 2013 - page 13

PCCA Journal|4
th
Quarter 2013
13
I
n Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s, “The Rime of the An-
cient Mariner,” the poem presents the unforgettable
line, “Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to
drink.” This line is an allusion to the age of abun-
dance that surrounds us and pervades our thinking
while concepts of scarcity are for others to deal with. In this
age of abundance, the utility market faces decades of scarcity
and a thirst for solutions. The types of scarcity include:
• Labor: Low birth rates, aging population, and lower per-
centage participating in the workforce.
1
• Utility Internal Workforce Over Age 55: 40 percent of in-
spectors, 30 percent of boilermakers, 25 percent of survey-
ing and mapping specialists, 25 percent of surveying and
mapping specialists, 25 percent petroleum engineers, 25
percent frontline supervisors, etc.
2
• Electricity Demand: Demographic trends, energy efficiency
or management, and distributed generation hold electric
demand growth below 1 percent.
3
• User Rate Increases: Ratepayer and PUC fatigue due to
rates rising faster than inflation since 2005.
4
• Alternative Funding: Innovation in securing funding for
infrastructure construction and replacement.
• Political Will and Agency Vision: The recent government
funding issues speak for themselves.
• Technology Innovation: The pace of change in the con-
struction industry is glacial and must accelerate.
The obvious reaction to scarcity is to see challenges. We
offer a more opportunistic way to look at this market envi-
ronment and believe successful firms will embrace it as one
filled with promise and opportunity.
2014 Utility Outlook
As one example of this thirst, this fall’s torrential rains
and severe flooding in Colorado offer insights. Prior to the
flooding, the Northern Colorado infrastructure market was
mature, with modest activity except for the Niobrara oil
and gas exploration. Post flooding, it is overwhelmed with
more infrastructure construction than there are resources.
For example, the Colorado Department of Transportation
Rocketing to Success:
Achieving Growth in
the Face of Scarcity
By Mark Bridgers and Nate Scott
Continued on page 14
1...,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,...68