Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. Named Recipient of the 2023 ReliabilityOne® Award for Outstanding Suburban and Rural Service Area Utility in the Northeast
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. was recognized by PA Consulting as a recipient of the 2023 ReliabilityOne® Award for Outstanding Reliability Performance in the Northeast Suburban/Rural service area – recognizing the very best suburban/rural service area investor-owned utilities in the United States.
To be eligible for this recognition, a utility must deliver a reliability performance ranked as the top achiever/performer in this demographic/density category.
O&R Vice President – Operations Won Choe said, “This recognition reflects hundreds of hours of planning, design, and construction to continually improve O&R’s energy delivery systems. That hard work never ends. This is a well-deserved tribute to the talent, diligence and creativity of the women and men of O&R. We are honored to receive this coveted award.”
Over the past year alone, O&R has spent nearly $180 million to safely fortify and improve the reliability of its electric system by continuing to implement a broad set of programs designed to reduce the number, damage and duration of power outages caused by major storms.
As a result, O&R has seen strong improvement in its electric service restoration times.
That improvement came from building additional electric circuits, implementing distribution automation in select circuits, burying overhead lines at strategic locations, enhancing overhead systems with stronger wire and poles, and expanding tree-trimming clearances at critical service locations.
O&R continues to safely improve reliability by further automating its electric system through smart grid technological improvements. The smart grid integrates state-of-the-art equipment and technology with advances in computer analysis, communications, monitoring and control to significantly enhance system reliability, efficiency, and overall quality of service.
“For the past 23 years, the ReliabilityOne® Awards have highlighted outstanding electric utility providers who resiliently build a more positive future for their customers,” said Derek HasBrouck, PA Consulting’s ReliabilityOne® Program Director. “I am honored to recognize Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. as an industry leader for delivering outstanding service reliability and restoration efforts.”
All utilities operating less dense electric delivery networks in North America are eligible for consideration for the Outstanding Reliability Performance in a suburban and rural service area award. There are eight metropolitan service regional awards including Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Plains, Mountains, West, Southeast, and Southwest.
The 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 a certification process which provides an independent review and confirmation of the policies, processes and systems used to collect, analyze and report a company's reliability results.
About Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc.
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies. O&R is a regulated utility that provides electric service to approximately 300,000 customers in southeastern New York State (where its franchise name is Orange & Rockland) and northern New Jersey (where it’s Rockland Electric Company), and natural gas service to approximately 130,000 customers in New York.
About PA Consulting
We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. As strategies, technologies, and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity. Our diverse teams of experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results. We are over 4,000 strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, 23rd Annual ReliabilityOne© Awards Program.