TLC’s network analyst awarded 2026 AM Council Research Scholarship

5 June 2026

The Lines Company (TLC) is pleased to announce that our Network Analyst Dr Muhammad Ali has been named the Asset Management Council (AM Council) Asset Management Research Scholar for 2026 – a competitive award recognised across Australasia.

Dr Ali’s research topic, Asset Criticality Modelling in Electricity Distribution Networks, will help strengthen how asset criticality is assessed – improving understanding of where failures would have the greatest consequences and supporting clearer prioritisation of investment and operational effort for the greatest risk reduction and customer benefit.

The scholarship provides funding for practical, workplace-based research that advances asset management and delivers benefits to both the recipient’s organisation and the wider community. The project will run for approximately 12 months.

Dr Ali was announced as the 2026 Research Scholar at the AMPEAK26 conference. The AM Council is a peak industry body for asset management in Australasia, supporting the profession through capability development, knowledge-sharing and recognition of excellence.

For TLC, the research directly supports ongoing improvement work, including strengthening our approach to criticality modelling to enable more transparent, evidence-based decisions about network vulnerabilities, public safety and reliability outcomes, and long-term prioritisation.

“We’re very proud of Ali’s achievement. He invested significant time preparing a strong application and progressed through multiple interviews as part of the selection process,” said TLC General Manager Network Gerhard Buitendach. “Having extra dollars to further our research means TLC customers realise benefits in terms of reliability and service.”

“This research will be incorporated into TLC’s asset management practices so that we can build better network connection for our customers,” said Dr Ali. “It will help us pinpoint where a failure would cause the biggest impact, so we can focus our spending and day-to-day effort on the areas that will reduce risk the most and deliver the greatest benefit for customers.”

“This scholarship directly supports the work we are doing through TLC’s Development and Delivery Plan, particularly our focus on improving our criticality approach as part of delivering sustained improvements to the network,” said Buitendach. “Strengthening our modelling helps us make more transparent, evidence-based decisions about where the network is most vulnerable, what matters most for public safety and reliability, and how we prioritise improvements over time so that we deliver what is best for customers.”