With rate plan extension in play, Con Ed offers look inside electricity operations

Jeff Lewis, electric utility reliability expert at PA Consulting Group, discusses best practices for utility reliability. Jeff is the director of PA’s ReliabilityOneTM program for reliability in the electric utility industry.   

In the article, Jeff commented that Con Edison won the overall outstanding system-wide award for national reliability in the U.S. in 2011 partly because of management’s investment in reliability.

Jeff is quoted as saying "Most utilities are single contingency, in other words, one thing can go wrong and you won't lose customers, but if a second thing goes wrong, most utilities could in fact lose customers. There are certain instances on the [Con Edison] network where you will get to a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or even seventh or eighth contingency without losing customers. You can't have the New York Stock Exchange lose power."

Illustrating some of the reasons Con Edison was presented the ReliabilityOneTM award, Jeff observed that Con Edison also has best practices for how it mobilises in emergency situations, and has been particularly effective in the past several years in its communications with municipalities, regulators and customers.

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