Having stellar operations is the backbone to many things in addition to the foundation of keeping the lights on. It means trust from customers, effective governance, financial health, and a safe working environment.
The “nuts and bolts” of what makes a utility run well goes beyond hardware and field work to a wide swath of functions: distribution, emergency management, outage mitigation, power supply management, human resources, customer service, and communication, just to name a few. Because of the size and nature of public power utilities, they often rely on a small team, or even individual people, to perform several of these critical functions.
Given the difficult task to balance many priorities, public power workers do a phenomenal job. The results of these efforts underscore APPA’s vision for affordable and reliable power for all. As our longtime colleague, Steve Wright, shares in his Q&A, that vision is not possible without a motivated, inspired workforce. It’s the people who work in public power that make its operations stand out — your dedication to providing service to your communities, of continually finding new and improved ways to keep the utility running, and advancing your skills to bring your best to work each day. We recognize this commitment through programs such as the Reliable Public Power Provider, or RP3, designation, and in celebrating excellence together, such as at our Lineworkers Rodeo and in our various public power awards presented each year for excellence.
These efforts should be recognized and celebrated. While we sing the praises of all the advantages public power customers get, we want to make it easy for you to join in the choir as well. We create graphics, such as the one showing public power’s stellar reliability or the map on average bills in the Public Power Statistical Report, so you can easily share this edge with your customers.
This issue of Public Power magazine aligns with the release of a new resource, Public Power Forward: A Guide to Utility Operational Excellence. An impressive slate of public power leaders, including seven past board chairs of the American Public Power Association, contributed their perspectives to this resource to ensure it covers the array of strategies and steps necessary for keeping up with our rapidly evolving industry. A graphic in this issue gives a high-level overview of the 11 strategic areas covered by the guide, and several features dive into what these strategies look like in action at utilities – from investing in your technology future to promoting human resource excellence.
I hope you gain some insights from this issue that can help in your day-to-day work. Please reach out to let us know how APPA can continue to support your operations in being the best they can be in service to your communities.
