In recognition of innovative leadership and operational excellence in the electric industry, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) has named Arizona Public Service, Iberdrola, S.A., and North Delhi Power Limited as winners of the Edison Award, the industry’s highest honor.

Arizona Public Service (APS) is this year’s domestic winner, while Iberdrola and North Delhi Power both received the international award.

Given annually by EEI, the award honors U.S. and international electric companies for outstanding contributions to the advancement of the power industry. A committee of national industry trade publication editors and a panel of current and retired CEOs select the finalists and ultimate winners. This year's award, the 81st, was presented today in Toronto at EEI's annual convention and expo.

"The Edison Award recognizes electric utilities for their distinguished leadership, innovation and advancement of our industry, and this year’s winners certainly meet these standards," said EEI President Thomas R. Kuhn. "Their commitment to operational excellence and reliability and their innovation in generating and delivering electricity are exceptional. Electric customers and utility shareholders will reap the benefits of their excellent performance, as will the entire electricity industry.”

Kuhn said the winners’ award-winning efforts “demonstrate leadership by addressing some of the critical issues our industry faces, and their efforts reflect the dedication to serving customers and spirit of innovation that embody our industry’s long history.”

Following are descriptions of the three companies’ award-winning efforts:

Arizona Public Service (APS) is the operating utility subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. and serves over one million customers throughout Arizona. APS developed a first-of-its-kind tool for near-real-time monitoring of major transformers serving the company’s customers. The on-line Transformer Oil Analysis and Notification (TOAN) system has enabled the company to automatically determine the “health” of transformers by evaluating dissolved gasses inside transformers, thereby improving system reliability, enhancing productivity and preventing catastrophic failure. The patent-pending monitoring and artificial intelligence analysis/notification system doubled the accuracy of existing methods while eliminating time-consuming and repetitive manual efforts.

Iberdrola, S.A. is one of the largest utilities in the world, with more than 24 million customers. The company recently developed and implemented a Research and Development Management System to oversee all of the company’s R&D initiatives, resources and projects. Designed to generate constant improvements in process efficiency and to apply resources to evolving external needs, the system has promoted a culture of innovation within the company while strengthening Iberdrola’s commitment to sustainable development. In 2007 the system enabled systematic and uniform criteria to be applied to more than 140 research and development projects with an annual budget of more than $100 million.

North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL), a company of the Tata Group, in India, was formed in 2002 to serve as a distribution utility in North Delhi by taking over a part of the former State Electricity Board of Delhi. The company has innovatively deployed a new Geographical Information System (GIS), integrating it with other applications for operational, commercial and asset-management activities. The GIS was integrated with NDPL’s Customer Relations and Billing systems to aid in recovery of outstanding customer bills, expedite requests for new connections and reduce theft; it also was integrated with the company’s Enterprise Resource system to improve asset tracking and the preparation of capital budgets. These initiatives have improved NDPL’s Consumer Satisfaction Index by 11 points, significantly raised system reliability, reduced aggregated losses by half and greatly increased employee productivity.