Reading, MA – Reading Municipal Light Department (RMLD) has received a certificate of excellence in reliability from the American Public Power Association (www.PublicPower.org), a trade organization that represents more than 2,000 not-for-profit, community-owned electric utilities across the country.
The Association helps members track outage and restoration data through its subscription-based eReliability Tracker service and then compares the data to national statistics tracked by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) for all types of electric utilities. Utilities that place in the top quartile of reliability nationwide, as measured against the EIA’s data on System Average Interruption Duration Index, or SAIDI, receive the certificate of excellence. The EIA information comes from the agency’s annual surveys of electric power utilities.
“This recognition helps demonstrate public power’s commitment to reliable electric service,” said the Association’s Senior Vice President of Engineering Services, Michael Hyland. Nationwide, the average public power customer has their lights out for less than half the time, compared to other types of utilities.
“This award is a testament to the success of the goals we set forth several years ago targeting infrastructure improvements, the implementation of ten critical maintenance programs, and the career development of staff. Nature can wreak havoc on an electric system. Good maintenance practices and stable system equipment can mitigate storm damage and improve restoration times,” said RMLD General Manager Coleen O’Brien. “While we are honored to receive this recognition, there is still much work to be done for sustained reliability. We will continue to adhere to our system planning to ensure best utility practices, sufficient capacity, cyclic maintenance, and to address aged equipment. It’s a continuous improvement process.”
Over the past several years, RMLD strategically shifted from reactive to proactive. The development of short- and long-term system modeling and plans were created to ensure continued reliability and have been integrated into the overall financial and budgeting processes; they are proving to be successful.
