Easton Utilities has earned the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Safety Award of Excellence for safe operating practices in 2024 and received national recognition for achieving exceptional electric reliability in 2024.
The utility earned a Platinum level award in the category for utilities with 60,000 – 109,999 annual worker-hours of exposure. APPA is a trade group that represents more than 2,000 not-for-profit, community-owned electric utilities and has conducted the Safety Awards annually for more than sixty-six years.
“This award is a testament to the safety culture we have built and the hard work that goes into ensuring our team members have a safe work environment,” said Andy Ober, Supervisor of Safety, Incident Response and Training for Easton Utilities.
In addition, Easton Utilities received high honors for reliability proudly reporting an average outage time per customer of approximately 10.5 minutes, not counting major event days. This is compared to the national average of 149 minutes from other US electric utilities. Nationwide, the average public power customer has their lights out for less than half the amount of time that customers of other types of utilities do.
“Year after year, data consistently demonstrate public power utilities provide highly reliable service.” said APPA Director of Research and Development Paul Zummo. “The utilities recognized here are truly elite when it comes to keeping the lights on. Their communities should be proud of the hard work and dedication of their local power providers as they earn this truly deserved recognition.”
APPA is the voice of not-for-profit, community-owned utilities that power 2,000 towns and cities nationwide. The association represents public power before the federal government to protect the interests of the more than 55 million people that public power utilities serve across the United States and its territories. APPA advises on electricity policy, grid technology and operations, and workforce development in support of safe, modern, and resilient utilities.
“Our partnership with APPA helps us strengthen grid stability, enhance response strategies, and drive innovation that benefits both our communities and the industry as a whole,” said John E. Hines, P.E., Vice President of Electric and Utility Projects for Easton Utilities.