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COLUMBIANA -- The city has earned national recognition for its ability to provide reliable electric service.
American Municipal Power announced recently that the American Municipal Power Association (APPA) presented the city with a Certificate of Excellence in Reliability.
The company said in the announcement that the certificate is awarded to utilities that placed in the top 25 percentile of reliability nationwide in 2022, as measured against the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) data.
The APPA helps public power systems track outage and restoration data through its eReliability Tracker service and compares the data to national statistics tracked by the EIA. AMP covers the cost of subscription to the eReliability Tracker service for all of its members, the company said.
The city purchases it's electricity through American Municipal Power, which is then supplied and overseen by the Columbiana electric department.
"Our goal is to ensure that our residents receive reliable and affordable electricity services. Richard Gibson, electric superintendent, and his electric team are our first responders to outages and we appreciate their passion to provide excellent customer service. They are equipped with the latest skills and technology to manage the grid effectively. Our crews did a fantastic job getting us through the last two storms," Columbiana City Manager Lance Willard said.
During a city council meeting earlier this month Willard said that the storms that occurred in late March and early April impacted every single department for the city, resulting in at least 15 loads of downed tree branches that were cleared from roadways and other areas.
The storms also had an impact on the surrounding areas, with power outages reported.
"Councils many moons ago decided to have our own electric department and I think that is a great benefit to have that. That is their priority, so we do appreciate that," Willard said of the department's ability to keep outages to a minimum.
"Columbiana's commitment to reliable electric service is commendable," said Jolene Thompson, AMP president and CEO. "This recognition shows how dedicated the City of Columbiana's Electric Department is to serving its customers."
Willard said it is "such an honor" to receive the Certificate of Excellence.
"To be among the 13 other Ohio recipients is significant as there are 80 public power communities in the state of ohio according to the Ohio Public Utilities Commission. The recognition is nice but we are always striving to be better," he said.
For example, since the beginning of this year the city has had an entire circuit improved, including new cutouts and animal guards installed to decrease chances of power outages.
Willard credited Electric Superintendent Richard Gibson for the improvements to the system.
"Realizing any outage is an inconvenience for our customers, he set out this year to make the system even better and more reliable," Willard said.
For more information about the APPA eReliability Tracker program and a listing of all recipients of the Certificate of Excellence in Reliability, visit www.publicpower.org.