Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. Named Recipient of the 2020 ReliabilityOne® Award for Outstanding Suburban and Rural Service Area Utility
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc.(O&R) was named yesterday by PA Consulting as a recipient of the 2020 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 award, a utility must deliver a reliability performance ranked as the top achiever/performer in this demographic/density category.
O&R also received the Outstanding Customer Reliability Experience Award. The Customer Reliability Experience Award is presented to an individual who is a service reliability champion within the organization. That award was presented to O&R’s Ed Verbraak, principal engineer and resident of West Milford, New Jersey.
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. 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 an on-site 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.
O&R Vice President – Operations Francis W. Peverly said, “This honor reflects the success of hundreds of hours of planning, design and construction to continually improve O&R’s energy delivery systems. Our efforts to improve service reliability never end and will only become more robust through technological advances in the future. This award is a well-deserved tribute to the talent, diligence, creativity and hard work of the men and women of O&R.”
O&R has made investments totaling over $140 million this year to fortify and improve the reliability of its electric system. That investment builds on the nearly $1 billion O&R has invested over the past 10 years on electric system maintenance and reliability projects.
In one of the largest projects in the company’s history, Orange & Rockland recently has completed installation of nearly 435,000 smart meters throughout the service territory. Among other benefits, those smart meters allow customers to better manage their energy consumption and costs by employing new energy efficiency programs. The smart meters also support more rapid emergency outage service restoration.
“Severe weather and climate impacts are driving efforts to improve the resiliency of the distribution system and grid modernization initiatives,” said Gregg Edeson, PA Consulting’s ReliabilityOne® Program Director. “Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. has established synergies in these efforts that optimize the infrastructure to operate effectively going forward.”
The Outstanding Customer Reliability Experience Award recipient Ed Verbraak, an O&R employee for more than 30 years, has a knack for field reliability. He developed that skill through his experience at a wide variety of customer-facing operations engineering positions. That experience helps Verbraak see system solutions in innovative and creative ways. Once he determines a solution, he works hand-in-glove with customer organizations to address customer reliability concerns.
Peverly said, “Ed is a thinker, a planner and a doer. His consistent, pro-active approach and deep knowledge of our energy delivery systems has made him a company leader in reliability and a well-respected member of O&R’s Operations team.”
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 in a technology-driven world. As strategies, technologies and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity. Our diverse teams of experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough use of technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results. An innovation and transformation consultancy, we are over 3,200 specialists in consumer, defense and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government, health and life sciences, manufacturing, and transport. Our people are strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers and technologists. We operate globally from offices across the UK, US, Europe, and the Nordics. PA. Bringing Ingenuity to Life. www.paconsulting.com
PA’s ReliabilityOne® awards are presented to electric utilities providing their customers with the highest levels of reliability in the industry. PA’s ReliabilityOne® study is based on standard industry reliability statistics that measure the frequency and duration of electric power outages. ReliabilityOne® participants on average experienced 35% fewer sustained outages, and outages were 49% shorter than the average US investor owned utility. PA has been analyzing electric utility performance since 1987. For more information about PA Consulting, visit www.paconsulting.com/energy.