Energy and Utilities Executive Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Business Unit Directors, Utility Operations Directors and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EM-082

Before you join: Participants should have substantial management experience in an energy, utility, infrastructure, public-service or closely related regulated organisation.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Energy and utility executives must make decisions where public service obligations, regulatory commitments, ageing assets, capital constraints, customer affordability and decarbonisation targets collide. A choice to defer maintenance, alter tariffs, approve a grid upgrade or respond to an outage can affect safety, financial performance, public trust and licence conditions simultaneously. Leaders need a disciplined way to set direction, govern trade-offs and maintain operational control while managing political and stakeholder scrutiny.

This advanced course examines executive management in electricity, gas, water, wastewater and district energy organisations. Participants work with strategic analysis, regulatory economics, board governance, asset investment, operational assurance, enterprise risk, resilience, customer strategy and transformation execution. They learn to frame decisions using evidence, assign clear accountabilities, test investment cases, manage major-event risks and align executive priorities with frontline delivery.

Teaching combines focused briefings, sector cases, facilitated group analysis, decision simulations and structured application planning. Cases reflect issues such as price-control negotiations, critical asset failures, cyber incidents, grid modernisation, affordability pressures and major capital programmes. Participants leave with an executive management action pack containing reusable templates and analyses tailored to their own utility or energy business.

The course suits senior managers and emerging executives responsible for business units, assets, operations, finance, regulation, customer outcomes or strategic change. It is particularly valuable for leaders moving from technical, commercial or functional authority into enterprise-level decision-making.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess energy and utility strategic choices using PESTLE, Five Forces and scenario planning
  • Design board and executive governance arrangements using the Three Lines Model and RAPID
  • Evaluate regulated revenue, tariff and investment decisions using regulatory economics principles
  • Prioritise asset investments through ISO 55001 objectives, criticality ranking and lifecycle planning
  • Direct operational assurance using bow-tie analysis, barrier health indicators and incident command roles
  • Construct enterprise resilience plans using ISO 31000, business continuity and cyber risk controls
  • Evaluate capital programmes using discounted cash flow, WACC and benefits realisation registers
  • Produce a 90-day executive action plan with priorities, owners, measures and decision gates

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Stronger credibility in board, regulator and investor discussions
  • Clearer methods for resolving reliability, affordability and investment trade-offs
  • Practical language for challenging capital proposals and transformation claims
  • Better control of executive risk, assurance and escalation responsibilities
  • A focused 90-day plan for applying executive management methods

For your organisation

  • Better alignment between strategy, regulated commitments and frontline delivery
  • More disciplined capital allocation across renewal, growth and transition investments
  • Earlier visibility of operational, cyber and continuity risks
  • Clearer executive accountabilities during incidents and major transformations
  • Improved evidence for regulators, boards, owners and public stakeholders

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame strategic choices against market, policy, stakeholder and service obligations.

  • PESTLE analysis separating policy, commodity, technology and social demand drivers
  • Porter's Five Forces assessment of market structure and competitive pressure
  • Scenario planning using signposts, trigger points and decision thresholds
  • Materiality matrix linking stakeholder expectations to strategic priorities
  • Regulatory compact mapped across customers, regulators, owners and communities
  • Strategic choices tested against reliability, affordability, safety and emissions commitments

Participants can establish governance arrangements that support accountable executive decisions.

  • Board assurance map assigning oversight for safety, risk, performance and conduct
  • Three Lines Model clarifying management, assurance and internal audit accountabilities
  • Delegated authority matrix for capital approvals, procurement and emergency decisions
  • Decision rights defined through RAPID roles for contested executive decisions
  • Management information packs distinguishing leading indicators from lagging results
  • Ethical decision tests addressing conflicts, public interest and licence obligations

Participants can connect regulatory decisions, customer outcomes and stakeholder commitments.

  • Regulatory strategy aligning price controls, service targets and investment cases
  • Revenue requirement mechanics: allowed returns, depreciation, operating costs and incentives
  • Tariff design trade-offs between cost recovery, equity and demand response
  • Stakeholder salience analysis using power, legitimacy and urgency criteria
  • Consultation plans converting objections into documented commitments and decisions
  • Government relations protocols preserving transparency, evidence and appropriate boundaries

Participants can prioritise asset and capital decisions using lifecycle value and risk evidence.

  • ISO 55001 asset management objectives connected to corporate value outcomes
  • Asset criticality ranking using consequence, likelihood, detectability and redundancy
  • Lifecycle plans balancing inspection, maintenance, renewal and replacement options
  • Risk-based investment prioritisation using multi-criteria decision analysis scoring
  • Capital portfolio gates testing scope, benefits, readiness and delivery confidence
  • Benefits realisation registers tracking cash, reliability, safety and carbon effects

Participants can direct operational assurance and executive response to major service events.

  • Operational performance system linking control-room, field and executive metrics
  • Bow-tie analysis connecting threats, preventive controls, consequences and recovery measures
  • Process safety leadership using barrier health, audit findings and learning reviews
  • Incident command roles structured through the Incident Command System
  • Reliability-centred maintenance decisions based on failure modes and asset consequences
  • After-action reviews converting major-event lessons into accountable corrective actions

Participants can set risk appetite and resilience controls for critical utility services.

  • ISO 31000 risk criteria calibrated to safety, supply and financial exposure
  • Enterprise risk registers connecting causes, controls, owners and residual risk
  • Business continuity plans defining recovery time objectives and minimum service levels
  • Black-start and restoration priorities coordinated with critical infrastructure dependencies
  • NIST Cybersecurity Framework profiles for operational technology governance and assurance
  • Crisis communications protocols for regulators, customers, media and elected officials

Participants can assess financial and commercial implications of executive utility decisions.

  • Integrated business plans connecting demand forecasts, operations, capital and funding
  • Discounted cash flow comparing projects through NPV, IRR and sensitivity analysis
  • Weighted average cost of capital applied to regulated investment decisions
  • 13-week rolling cash forecast built from receipts, payroll and supplier data
  • Commodity hedging governance defining mandates, limits, collateral and reporting
  • Cost-to-serve analysis identifying cross-subsidies, loss drivers and margin pressures

Participants can align customer, market and transition choices with service obligations.

  • Customer segmentation combining consumption patterns, vulnerability and service expectations
  • Demand-side management portfolios evaluated through avoided cost and load impact
  • Energy transition roadmaps sequencing grid upgrades, flexibility and distributed resources
  • Service design blueprints exposing handoffs, failure points and recovery actions
  • Affordability programmes targeted using arrears data, eligibility rules and outcomes
  • Partnership models allocating risks among utilities, developers, communities and financiers

Participants can lead organisational change while sustaining safety, capability and workforce trust.

  • Operating model design aligning accountabilities, capabilities, processes and technology
  • Workforce plans addressing retirement risk, scarce skills and succession coverage
  • Union engagement strategy preparing evidence, mandates and implementation milestones
  • Psychological safety practices encouraging escalation of safety, quality and conduct concerns
  • Change impact assessments identifying role, process, system and behaviour implications
  • ADKAR change plans connecting sponsorship, communication, training and reinforcement

Participants can translate strategic priorities into governed, measurable executive action plans.

  • Strategy deployment using Hoshin Kanri catchballs, targets and review cadences
  • OKR cascades linking enterprise outcomes, business-unit commitments and team measures
  • Transformation roadmaps sequencing initiatives, dependencies, funding and decision gates
  • Benefits tracking through owners, baselines, milestones and evidence requirements
  • Executive dashboards integrating safety, service, financial, asset and people indicators
  • 90-day action plans specifying priorities, stakeholders, measures and first decisions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Executive utility strategy assessment template
  2. Board assurance and decision-rights matrix
  3. Asset investment prioritisation model
  4. Enterprise resilience and crisis escalation checklist
  5. Capital programme benefits realisation register
  6. 90-day executive action plan

Who should attend

  • Business Unit Directors — need to balance enterprise objectives with operational and financial accountability
  • Utility Operations Directors — need executive controls for reliability, safety and major-event performance
  • Asset Management Leaders — need to connect lifecycle decisions with regulatory and corporate value outcomes
  • Regulatory Affairs Executives — need stronger links between price controls, investment cases and strategy
  • Finance and Commercial Directors — need to assess capital, tariffs, funding and affordability trade-offs
  • Senior Transformation Leaders — need disciplined governance for complex operational and customer change

Skills and tools covered

Utility strategy formulationRegulatory governanceAsset investment prioritisationOperational risk assuranceExecutive financial analysisTransformation execution

Tools and standards

ISO 55001, ISO 31000, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, Three Lines Model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish executive methods, followed by energy and utility cases, facilitated group work, decision simulations and individual application planning. Participants assess regulatory trade-offs, rank asset investments, interpret risk information and respond to realistic service disruption scenarios. Faculty feedback focuses on the quality of assumptions, evidence, decision rights and stakeholder reasoning. Classroom delivery supports peer exchange across organisations; live online delivery uses facilitated breakout work and shared decision materials.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have substantial management experience in an energy, utility, infrastructure, public-service or closely related regulated organisation. They should understand their organisation's operating model, major performance measures and decision-making routes for capital, risk or service delivery. Familiarity with basic financial statements, budgets and business cases is useful. The course does not require engineering qualifications, prior formal study of regulation, advanced financial modelling skills or technical cyber expertise. Participants gain most value when they bring a current strategic, operational or investment issue to consider during the course.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

The course is designed for experienced managers, senior specialists and executives working in utilities, energy, infrastructure or regulated public services. Participants should understand their own organisation's operating priorities and have experience contributing to management decisions.

Participants should bring a current strategic, asset, operational, regulatory or transformation issue that they can consider during application planning. Confidential documents are not required; anonymised facts, questions and high-level performance information are sufficient.

It is best suited to directors, heads of function, senior managers and high-potential leaders with enterprise responsibilities. Technical leaders preparing for broader business or executive roles will also benefit.

This course focuses on executive choices across strategy, regulation, assets, finance, operations, risk and stakeholders. It does not teach detailed engineering design, project scheduling methods or generic leadership theory as standalone subjects.

Participants use the methods to improve decision papers, capital reviews, risk discussions, executive dashboards and stakeholder plans. The final action plan identifies priorities, owners, measures and early decisions for their own role.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing about 6.5 contact hours daily. The five days cover ten teaching modules through briefings, cases, group analysis, simulations and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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