Owatonna Public Utilities (OPU) has received national recognition for achieving exceptional electric reliability in 2016. The recognition comes from the American Public Power Association (www.PublicPower.org), a trade group that represents more than 2,000 not-for-profit, community-owned electric utilities.
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 for all types of electric utilities. Owatonna showed an average customer experiencing an electric outage could expect to have power back in 22 minutes compared to the national average of 92 minutes.
“This recognition helps demonstrate public power’s commitment to reliable electric service,” said the Association’s Senior Vice President of Engineering Services, Michael Hyland.
Public power has a strong track record of reliability, said Hyland. Nationwide, the average public power customer has their lights out for less than half the time, compared to other types of utilities.
“We are proud to receive this recognition. It is a testament to the hard work of all our staff to ensure that the lights stay on for all our customers,” said Ron Johnson, Director of Engineering at Owatonna Public Utilities.