Ed Gray Receives Outstanding Reliability Performance Award

Public Service Electric and Gas Director of Transmission and Distribution Engineering Ed Gray on Wednesday was awarded the Outstanding Reliability Performance Award for individual achievement by PA Consulting at a ceremony in Phoenix Wednesday night.

Gray did not know when he traveled to Arizona that he would be receiving an award, presented to him by PSE&G's Senior Vice President – Electric Transmission and Distribution
Kim Hanemann. Gray was nominated for the award for spearheading the company’s reliability efforts, both for PSE&G and PSEG Long Island, over the past three years. Known as an innovator who optimizes investments and minimizes risk, Gray led many of the decisions that have contributed to the company’s overall reliability success.

PSE&G also was a big winner at the ceremony, receiving the national 2018 Outstanding Customer Reliability Experience Award and the ReliabilityOne™ Award for Outstanding Reliability Performance in the Mid-Atlantic Region for the 17th consecutive year.

The Customer Reliability award is presented to a ReliabilityOne™ recipient who has the best overall customer experience as it relates to outage reporting and restoration communications, and has taken steps to engage with their customers by providing real-time access to information across various channels. By embracing these communications channels during both blue-sky and major events, they have seized the opportunity to deliver a positive shift in their ability to engage with their customers directly.

“We take very seriously our obligation to provide our customers with reliable gas and electric service. Customer service is one of our core commitments, and we’re extremely pleased to receive this national recognition for efforts to respond quickly to service disruptions, and for how we engage with our customers before, during and after outages,” Hanemann said. “We understand how important it is to keep people informed and reassured that their lights will be back on as soon as possible.”

Specifically, PSE&G was noted for its proactive calls to customers, newly redesigned and responsive website, outage center that provides up-to-date outage information and text alerts; and, for keeping customers informed through compelling storytelling and round-the-clock staffing of its media line. This is the first time PSE&G has won the Outstanding Customer Reliability Experience Award.

All large utilities operating electric delivery networks in North America are eligible for consideration for the ReliabilityOne™ Award. There are a total of six regional awards including Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Plains, West and Southeast. The 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 that provides an independent review and confirmation of the policies, processes and systems used to collect, analyze and report a company's reliability results.

“For the past 18 years, the ReliabilityOne™ Awards have showcased outstanding electric utility providers and best in class customer service and restoration efforts,” said Gregg Edeson, PA Consulting’s ReliabilityOne™ Program Director. “We are pleased to name PSE&G as an industry leader for their work keeping the lights on in the face of ‘new normal’ storms and weather events.”