Award Winners
Nashville Metro Water Services
2005 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
With a goal of continuous improvement, Nashville's Metro Water Services began a government-wide strategic planning and performance measurement initiative called Results Matter. The utility introduced new technology such as GIS, automated meter reading and an engineering document management system, and implemented a mobile dispatch, all of which led to improvements in customer and employee satisfaction, productivity and cost.
Orange County Utilities Water Division
2005 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
Technological and organizational strategies helped the Orange County Utilities Water Division maintain its competitive edge. Major technological accomplishments included a state-of-the-art laboratory, a SCADA room that is fully operational 24/7, and Maximo, the wireless Computer Maintenance Management System that has allowed field staff to process work orders more efficiently. The Florida utility increased security at its facilities, expanded water conservation programs and completed conversion from gaseous chlorine to hypochlorite.
City of Henderson Utility Services
2005 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
The City of Henderson Utility Services played a significant role in the City's upgraded bond rating, achieving an exceptional safety record and gaining community support for extensive capital programs to support growth, and continuing to provide value priced products. In the past decade, the utility successfully responded to serious drought and double-digit growth in the community. During this time, it increased rates less than the rate of inflation and maintained customer satisfaction at 90 percent.
East Bay Municipal Utility District
2005 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
Many of the accomplishments of the East Bay Municipal Utility District were guided by its strategic plan and included the creation of a new centralized customer contact system, implementation of an ongoing energy management strategy, and the establishment of employee development programs to build supervisory and leadership skills. A new customer contact system improved customer response and tracking for greater efficiency. The energy management strategy resulted in a hydropower revenue increase of over $2 million annually while simultaneously reducing energy purchase costs by nearly $1 million each year.
Fort Wayne City Utilities
2005 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
Fort Wayne City Utilities sustained a competitive edge through benchmarking, strategic business planning, listening to its customers, using technology, and improving efficiency and effectiveness. Its business plan was used to drive the allocation of resources and to ensure the achievement of its goals in regulatory compliance, application of technology, stakeholder involvement, asset management and organizational excellence.
Greater Cincinnati Water Works
2005 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
The Greater Cincinnati Water Works utilized the Strategic Business Plan process to provide a blueprint for its competitive efforts. A performance measurement system ensured its focus on the issues identified by customer surveys. Use of technology, such as the conversion of its meter reading to a radio read setup, reduced operational costs and provided improved customer service. Distribution system, water treatment plants and plant process improvements provided an abundant supply of high quality water at a reasonable cost and positioned Cincinnati to expand services and further spread costs.
Kansas City Water Services Department
2005 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
The Kansas City Water Services Department's 10-year competitive business plan includes performance targets and action items to upgrade infrastructure and facilities, improve service levels and minimize annual operating costs. The plan aims to reduce response and repair time to main breaks while increasing the performance of more preventative maintenance and doubling the amount of capital projects the Engineering Services Divisions oversees.
Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority
2005 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
In 2003, the Albuquerque Water and Sewer Utility became the multi-jurisdictional Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority. The utility moved forward with multiple initiatives to improve its services, ensure water supply to meet future demand, fulfill increasingly stringent water and wastewater quality requirements, and create a more efficient and effective organization.
Broward County Water and Wastewater Services
2005 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
Broward County Water and Wastewater Services showed its commitment to competitive initiatives in many ways, including a financial plan that called for the cash financing of many renewal and replacement projects at a level equal to annual system depreciation. The budget maintained high quality services for its customers, maximized efficiencies, and continued an aggressive capital improvement program while minimizing rate increases. The utility implemented a long-term capital improvement modernization program for its operating plants and an extensive rebuild program for its neighborhoods and underground structures.
Butler County Department of Environmental Sciences
2005 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
Improvement initiatives at the Butler County Department of Environmental Sciences allowed the utility to successfully control costs, provide high-quality water and sewer service, and exhibit exceptional environmental stewardship through public outreach programs. In recent regionalization initiatives, Butler County joined with four neighboring water and sewer utilities and three municipalities to provide service to County residents, assuring customers of an adequate supply of water and high levels of service at reasonable rates.
City of Raleigh Public Utilities Department
2006 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
While experiencing rapid growth associated with mergers with water and sewer systems of nearby towns, the City of Raleigh Public Utilities Department remains committed to providing quality, affordable water to customers.Capital improvement projects to address the growth include a new utility operations center and water treatment plant.Through its Gainsharing Program, employees are rewarded for ideas on reducing costs, improving methods and increasing service quality.
JEA
2006 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
At JEA, the TargetSmart program, based on Six Sigma methodology, has permeated its workforce, resulting in significant process improvements and cost savings. Production and infrastructure system investments were made to prepare for the future, and JEA is refining and streamlining its systems to ensure optimum performance in production, technology, productivity, reliability and customer service.