SAN DIEGO, Nov. 16, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Last night, PA Consulting Group, the management, systems and technology consultancy, announced the winners of its annual ReliabilityOne(tm) and ServiceOne(tm) Awards at a reception in Miami, Florida. The ReliabilityOne(tm) awards are given annually to utilities that have excelled in delivering reliable electric service to their customers, while the ServiceOne(tm) awards recognize utilities for providing exceptional service to their customers as determined by a set of 19 objective measures of excellence in customer care, identified by a panel of industry experts.
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) was acknowledged as the most reliable utility in the Western Region, which includes more than 25 distribution utilities in eight states -- Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and part of Texas -- and western Canada.
"SDG&E is proud to be recognized among our peers as having one of the best reliability records in the industry," said Debra L. Reed, SDG&E's president and chief executive officer. "Along with the excellent efforts of our employees to restore service as safely and as quickly as possible when the power goes out, we take a proactive approach to prevent outages from happening in the first place."
Nearly 60 percent of SDG&E's electrical system is underground, which is a much higher percentage than many other major utilities.
"We have increased service reliability through an aggressive program to replace those cables that have the highest-failure rates before they fail and cause an outage," said Reed. "In addition, new technologies on the horizon will help us to continue to improve reliability in the future."
Other regional reliability award winners are:
-- Newark, N.J.-based Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G) received
the ReliabilityOne(tm) Award for the Mid-Atlantic Region and also
took home the National Achievement award. PSE&G is a five-time
winner of the Mid-Atlantic Region and a two-time winner of the
National Achievement award. PSE&G is a regulated utility
delivering electric service to 2.1 million customers and gas
service to 1.7 million customers throughout New Jersey.
-- Consolidated Edison Company of New York, which serves more
than 9 million residents in the New York metro area, won the
ReliabilityOne(tm) Award for the Northeast Region.
-- We Energies, which serves electric, natural gas, water, and steam
customers in portions of Wisconsin and Michigan won the
ReliabilityOne(tm) Award for the Midwest Region.
-- Orlando Utilities Commission, a municipally owned public utility
providing water and electric service to the City of Orlando
and adjoining portions of Orange County, won the
ReliabilityOne(tm) Award for the Southeast Region.
-- Roseville Electric, based in Roseville, Calif., a suburb of
Sacramento, was the recipient of the Community Utility
ReliabilityOne(tm) 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 winners 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 2005 performance is the best I've seen since we began the program more than six years ago. The focus on reliability from utilities and regulators alike has really driven industry performance."
All utilities operating electric delivery networks in North America are eligible for consideration for the ReliabilityOne(tm) award. PA collects reliability data from public and private sources to determine preliminary regional winners. Once preliminary winners are chosen, each utility 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.
Prior to the awards ceremony, PA held its inaugural Utility Performance Leadership Forum, hosted and sponsored by Florida Power & Light, which brought utility executives and their next generation leaders to discuss utility industry issues, hot topics, and best practices.
About PA Consulting Group
PA Consulting Group is a leading management, systems and technology consulting firm. Operating worldwide in more than 35 countries, PA draws on the knowledge and experience of 3,000 people, whose skills extend from the initial generation of ideas, insights and solutions all the way through to detailed implementation. This benefits-driven approach is founded on our strength in innovation, our responsiveness to our clients' needs, and our unyielding focus on delivery. All of our work and support is based on deep sector insight and expertise, and we work across the private and public sectors, with particular strengths in financial services, energy, life sciences & healthcare, government & public services, manufacturing, defense and telecommunications.
About San Diego Gas & Electric
San Diego Gas & Electric is a full-service energy utility that currently serves 3.4 million consumers through 1.3 million electric meters and more than 825,000 natural gas meters. The utility's service area spans 4,100 square miles and serves customers in more than 125 communities from Southern Orange County to the Mexican border. SDG&E is a regulated subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE). Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy services holding company. To learn more, go to www.sdge.com.