PA Consulting Group Recognizes North America's Most Reliable and Customer-Friendly Utilities at the 2007 ReliabilityOne(TM) and ServiceOne Awards Ceremony

    SAN DIEGO, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Last night, PA Consulting Group, the
 management, systems and technology consultancy, announced the winners of
 its annual ReliabilityOne(TM) and ServiceOne Awards at a reception in San
 Diego, CA. The ReliabilityOne(TM) Awards are given annually to utilities
 that have excelled in delivering reliable electric service to their
 customers, while the ServiceOne Awards are based on a set of criteria that
 covers nearly all the functional areas within customer service operations
 typical for a North American utility.
     For the first time, Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L), was the
 recipient of the National Reliability Excellence Award. KCP&L, a subsidiary
 of Great Plains Energy, Inc. is a leading regulated provider of electricity
 and energy-related products and services in the Midwest, serving more then
 505,000 customers in Missouri and Kansas. They were also the recipients of
 the ReliabilityOne(TM) Award for the Plains Region.
     Regional award winners also included:
     -- Public Service Electric & Gas, a regulated utility delivering electric
        service to 2.1 million customers and gas service to 1.7 million
        customers throughout New Jersey, was the recipient of the
        ReliabilityOne(TM) Award in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
     -- We Energies, which serves 2.4 million electric, natural gas, water, and
        steam customers in portions of Wisconsin and Michigan, was the
        recipient of the ReliabilityOne(TM) Award for the Midwest Region.
     -- Orlando Utilities Commission, a municipally owned public utility
        providing electric and water services to more than 196,000 customers in
        Orlando, St. Cloud and parts of unincorporated Orange and Osceola
        counties, was the recipient of the ReliabilityOne(TM) Award for the
        Southeast Region.
     -- San Diego Gas & Electric, a Sempra Energy utility serving 3.4 million
        consumers in San Diego and southern Orange counties, was the recipient
        of the ReliabilityOne(TM) Award in the West Region.
     -- Roseville Electric, based in Roseville, CA, 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 recipients from across the country,"
 said Jeff Lewis, PA's ReliabilityOne(TM) Program Director. "Each utility
 distinguished itself for its commitment to delivering outstanding
 reliability to customers and the overall 2006 performance is among the best
 I've seen since we began the program more than six years ago. The utility
 companies and regulators have really sharpened their focus on reliability
 and it has driven industry performance."
     The ReliabilityOne(TM) Award is given annually to utilities that have
 excelled in delivering reliable electric service to their customers. All
 utilities operating electric delivery networks in North America are
 eligible for consideration for the ReliabilityOne(TM) Award. 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 of the
 policies, processes and systems used to collect, analyze and report a
 company's reliability results.
     PA also recognized those utilities that excel in the area of customer
 service and care with the presentation of the ServiceOne awards. The 2007
 ServiceOne award recipients were:
     -- San Diego Gas & Electric
     -- Florida Power & Light, which serves 4.4 million customers throughout
        Florida
     -- NorthWestern Energy, an electricity and natural gas utility that serves
        customers in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska
     "Across the electric utility industry, companies operate under a
 diverse set of circumstances that present obstacles in the form economic
 conditions, customer demographics, and regulatory requirements," said Mike
 Hormell, PA's ServiceOne Program Director. "The organizations honored this
 evening recognize that the road to top performance requires the development
 of custom solutions that target the specific needs and preferences of their
 customer base."
     The ServiceOne Award is based on a set of criteria that covers nearly
 all the functional areas within customer service operations typical for a
 North American utility. These functional areas include the contact center,
 billing, payment, revenue protection, credit and collections, meter reading
 and safety. Utilities that participate in PA Consulting Group's annual
 Polaris performance benchmarking program are considered for a ServiceOne
 award. While PA administers the program, an advisory committee consisting
 of members within the Polaris program provides advice regarding its content
 and criteria.
     PA also recognized several members of the Polaris program who have
 demonstrated a pro-active approach to identifying opportunities for
 improvement, recommending solutions to difficult questions, and shaping
 program content to best represent the interests of the broader Polaris
 panel of companies. The honorees were:
     -- Polaris Customer Service Program 2007 Outstanding Contributor: Denise
        Diaab, Southern California Edison
     -- Polaris Transmission & Distribution Program 2007 Outstanding
        Contributor -- Transmission: Mike Pakeltis, CenterPoint Energy
     -- Polaris Transmission & Distribution Program 2007 Outstanding
        Contributor -- Distribution: Dave Carter, We Energies
     About PA Consulting Group
     At PA Consulting Group, we transform the performance of organisations,
 providing clients with innovative solutions, a highly responsive approach,
 and delivery of hard results. We are an independent, employee-owned, global
 firm of 3,000 talented individuals, operating from offices across the
 world, in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Oceania. We have
 deep expertise across key industries and government, and a unique breadth
 of skills from strategy to IT to HR to applied technology.
     About PA's Polaris program
     PA's Polaris program is a comprehensive discovery process into a
 utility's business operations. The program, consisting of a general review
 of organization practices, in addition to a focus on Transmission and
 Distribution and/or Customer Service, focuses on this discovery process by
 taking an inventory of the strengths and opportunities of a utility.
     Our benchmarking program includes a review of asset management
 strategy, business process mapping, and cost analysis. In addition, a focus
 exists on customer satisfaction, expenses review, health and safety review
 and analysis of the regulatory environment. The concepts of shareholder
 value and training are also included.
     Since 1989, PA has benchmarked operational trends across 250
 utility-operating companies nation wide.
 
 

SOURCE PA Consulting Group