Gastonia wins four Public Power Awards of Excellence

Gastonia came up big again in a recent assessment of its municipal public power performance.

The city secured four honors this month when ElectriCities of North Carolina announced the recipients of the 2018 Public Power Awards of Excellence. The awards align with ElectriCities’ five strategic priorities and recognize achievement in five specific areas.

Those include communicating the value of public power, grid modernization, continuous improvement, workforce development and wholesale power cost.

“It is an honor to recognize these outstanding public power communities for their commitment to providing exceptional reliability and superior service to their customers,” said ElectriCities CEO Roy Jones. “These hardworking employees and community leaders are truly at the heart of public power, showing tireless dedication and exemplifying what it means to be a committed community partner.”

Gastonia joined a handful of other cities in being recognized for the following distinctions:

• The Grid Modernization Award, which recognizes efforts to promote investment in public power communities’ electric distribution systems and in technology to ensure safety and reliability and exceed customer expectations

• The Value of Public Power Award, which recognizes a communities’ efforts to communicate the value of electric system ownership to key stakeholders.

• The Wholesale Power Cost Award, which recognizes a cities’ ability to provide competitive and stable wholesale electric rates that meet the power supply need of Power Agency members.

• The Workforce Planning and Development Award, which honors communities that promote a work-force plan to attract, develop and retain the necessary human talent to provide safe, reliable power and lead public power forward.

• The Continuous Improvement Award, which recognizes communities that constantly review and enhance all aspects of public power while focusing on cost reduction and increased efficiencies in current and future operations.

ElectriCities is a membership organization including public power communities in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. ElectriCities also provides management services to North Carolina’s two municipal power agencies: North Carolina Municipal Power Agency Number 1 and North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency.