THE 2002 TLC UVM BENCHMARKING STUDY

Utility Vegetation Management (UVM) Programs would be best described as “those cost-effective and environmentally correct practices and efforts of a utility to prevent any vegetation from conflicting with the safe and efficient delivery of electricity”. Trees and vegetation have a significant impact on all electric companies who have exposed overhead power systems. In many areas, trees represent the single largest threat to electric service reliability and the resulting mitigation efforts represent one of the largest maintenance expenses incurred by electric utilities.

Tree Line Connection (TLC) and CNUC are pleased to announce the completion of the TLC Benchmarking Study. Our hopes are that it will help improve, or validate, the participants vegetation management activities. We would like to thank all utility companies who participated in, and provided suggestions and commentary for the survey.

We believe that this effort represents the largest and most comprehensive benchmarking effort to date to gather information regarding the “state of utility vegetation management”. We also believe the information contained within the report will be helpful to all utility arborists interested in identifying trends, best practices, and opportunities for improvement.

Here are a few comments from participating utilities regarding the Study:

"Most comprehensive Survey yet. I'm sure it will come in handy as we work through developing the Asset Management model within our company"

"Good Comparisons to judge how your utility compares to others"

"I have participated in a number of such studies and this is the only one that asked all of the right questions"

"Very informative. Allowed our Department to compare with others around the country"

Future benchmarking will be conducted by TLC and CNUC in an effort to help utilities monitor the progress of their utility vegetation management program over time.

Participants of the 2002 TLC Benchmarking Study are as follows: