The Braintree Electric Light Department took top honors for
reliable service at a recent national industry conference.
The American Public Power Association presented the town-owned utility with a Diamond Reliable Public Power Provider designation. The diamond level is the highest of the three levels of the designation.
The designation recognizes public power utilities that demonstrate proficiency in four key disciplines: reliability, safety, workforce development and system improvement. Criteria within each category are based on sound business practices and represent a utility-wide commitment to the safe and reliable delivery of electricity.
BELD earned a score of 98 out of a possible 100 in the review.
Light Department General Manager Bill Bottiggi said they are honored to receive the designation.
"Our utility staff puts in a lot of hard work to serve this community," Bottiggi said. This designation "represents a much needed recognition of this hard work."
The designation has been awarded for a decade, and is currently held by less than 10 percent of the country’s more than 2,000 public power utilities. It lasts for three years.
Kenneth Stone, BELD's energy services and accounting manager, serves as an executive committee member of the review panel for the designation.
Stone said that utilities that have received the designation "are implementing best practices for the industry and are a testament to public power’s commitment to serving the community."
The designees were presented Monday during the association’s annual engineering and operations technical conference in Sacramento, Calif.
BELD is one of five Massachusetts public power utilities to hold the designation. The others are in Holyoke, Mansfield, North Attleboro and Westfield.
The more than 2,000 community- and state-owned utilities represented by the Arlington, Va.-based American Public Power Association serve more than 48 million people, or about 14 percent of the nation’s electricity customers.
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