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Utilities have an incredibly strange business model. On the one hand its guaranteed ROI but on the other, they're required to have as close to 100% availability as possible.
99.9% uptime for an electric utility means you have no electricity for about 9 hours every year.
They also have a financial incentive to keep assets because they increase the total value which the rate is derived from.
They make money by spending money... until they piss off the regulators with ineffective spending and get denied an increase during a rate case.
So, utilities are always very deliberate and very cautious when spending money. Typically when the public views an expense as stupid it's due to stupid laws. They're a business just playing the game someone else created.
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