PA Consulting Group last week announced the winners of its annual ReliabilityOne and ServiceOne Awards at a reception in San Diego, California. The ReliabilityOne awards are given annually to utilities that have excelled in delivering reliable electric service to their customers, while the ServiceOne awards are based on a set of criteria that covers nearly all the functional areas within customer service operations typical for a North American utility.

For the first time, Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L), was the recipient of the National Reliability Excellence Award. KCP&L, a subsidiary of Great Plains Energy, Inc. is a leading regulated provider of electricity and energy-related products and services in the Midwest, serving more then 505,000 customers in Missouri and Kansas. KCP&L was also the recipient of the ReliabilityOne Award for the Plains Region.

Regional award winners also included:

• Public Service Electric & Gas, a regulated utility delivering electric service to 2.1 million customers and gas service to 1.7 million customers throughout New Jersey, was the recipient of the ReliabilityOne award in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
• We Energies, which serves 2.4 million electric, natural gas, water, and steam customers in portions of Wisconsin and Michigan, was the recipient of the ReliabilityOne Award for the Midwest Region.
• Orlando Utilities Commission, a municipally owned public utility providing electric and water services to more than 196,000 customers in Orlando, St. Cloud and parts of unincorporated Orange and Osceola counties, was the recipient of the ReliabilityOne Award for the Southeast Region.
• San Diego Gas & Electric, a Sempra Energy utility serving 3.4 million consumers in San Diego and southern Orange counties, was the recipient of the ReliabilityOne™ Award in the West Region.
• Roseville Electric, based in Roseville, CA, a suburb of Sacramento, was the recipient of the Community Utility ReliabilityOne™ Award. This award is given to a utility that primarily serves a single community of fewer than 250,000 customers.

“We have an outstanding group of recipients from across the country,” said Jeff Lewis, PA’s ReliabilityOne program director. “Each utility distinguished itself for its commitment to delivering outstanding reliability to customers, and the overall 2006 performance is among the best I’ve seen since we began the program more than six years ago. The utility companies and regulators have really sharpened their focus on reliability and it has driven industry performance.”

The ReliabilityOne award is given annually to utilities that have excelled in delivering reliable electric service to their customers. All utilities operating electric delivery networks in North America are eligible for consideration for the ReliabilityOne award. Selection of provisional recipients is based primarily on system reliability statistics that measure the frequency and duration of customer outages. After provisional recipients are selected, each company undergoes an on-site certification process, which provides an independent review of the policies, processes and systems used to collect, analyze and report a company's reliability results.

PA also recognized those utilities that excel in the area of customer service and care with the presentation of the ServiceOne awards. The 2007 ServiceOne award recipients were:

• San Diego Gas & Electric
• Florida Power & Light, which serves 4.4 million customers throughout Florida
• NorthWestern Energy, an electricity and natural gas utility that serves customers in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska

“Across the electric utility industry, companies operate under a diverse set of circumstances that present obstacles in the form of economic conditions, customer demographics, and regulatory requirements,” said Mike Hormell, PA’s ServiceOne Program Director. “The organizations honored this evening recognize that the road to top performance requires the development of custom solutions that target the specific needs and preferences of their customer base.”

The ServiceOne award is based on a set of criteria that covers nearly all the functional areas within customer service operations typical for a North American utility. These functional areas include the contact center, billing, payment, revenue protection, credit and collections, meter reading and safety. Utilities that participate in PA Consulting Group’s annual Polaris performance benchmarking program are considered for a ServiceOne award. While PA administers the program, an advisory committee consisting of members within the Polaris program provides advice regarding its content and criteria.

PA also recognized several members of the Polaris program who have demonstrated a pro-active approach to identifying opportunities for improvement, recommending solutions to difficult questions, and shaping program content to best represent the interests of the broader Polaris panel of companies. The honorees were:

• Polaris Customer Service Program 2007 Outstanding Contributor: Denise Diaab, Southern California Edison
• Polaris Transmission & Distribution Program 2007 Outstanding Contributor – Transmission: Mike Pakeltis, CenterPoint Energy
• Polaris Transmission & Distribution Program 2007 Outstanding Contributor – Distribution: Dave Carter, We Energies