2008 Award Winners

CS Week together with Electric Light & Power magazine were pleased to announce the winners

of the 2008 Expanding Excellence Awards during CS Week 2008 in Antonio, TX.

L-R: Jon Meyer, Benton PUD; Nancy McCurry, Kansas City Power & Light; Linda King, PUD #1 of Clallam County; John McCaskey, Duke Energy; Bob Arnett, Cobb Energy; and Bruce Dugan, JEA

Best CIS Implementation

JEA was awarded the Best CIS Implementation in the Level I Class. Bruce Dugan, CC&P Project Director accepted the award for JEA.

In less than 17 months, JEA replaced its billing system and redesigned the major CIS interfaces utilizing technologies and approaches that better position the utility to move to SOA in the near future. The project came in on time and under budget by $5.8M.

JEA employed an innovative approach to end-user training, saving an estimated $450,000 by conducting all application training with computer-based training (CBT) modules and electronic exams developed by in-house staff.

Cobb EMC/Cobb Energy was awarded the Best CIS Implementation in the Level II Class. Bob Arnett, VP, Technology Services accepted the award for Cobb EMC/Cobb Energy.

Six months prior to go-live on a technological overhaul to reduce outside contractor support costs by 80%, Cobb EMC/Cobb Energy purchased Southern Company Gas. A gas billing partnership had to be dissolved and accounts transferred back to SCANA. Likewise, Southern Company Gas’ billing system required conversion from their platform by a fixed date. This created a 12-month, 74% budget increase change order to the project and required extensive re-planning.

Widespread user involvement and executive support of the project resulted in annual benefits of $3.85 million and a reduction in reporting from 6,000 reports to 300. The revised plan also added Gas South without any new permanent staff positions.

Innovation in Extending a Legacy System

Duke Energy Corp was awarded the Innovation in Extending a Legacy System award in the Level I Class. John McCaskey, Project Manager II accepted the award for Duke Energy Corp.

The Duke Energy property manager project implemented a services monitoring tool that property managers can access through a secure web portal. It allows managers to view the status of their properties, request electric service be turned on or off in their name, and receive automated email information alerting them that a tenant has requested electric service to be turned on or off for a specific property.

Public Utility District #1 of Clallam County was awarded the Innovation in Extending a Legacy System award in the Level II Class. Linda King, CIS/Billing Supervisor accepted the award for Public Utility District #1 of Clallam County.

A flexible point-and-click bill print solution overlaying a 10-year-old CIS, allowed Clallam County PUD to create an easy-to-read bill that is mailed to the customer and accessible for CSRs and for on-line payment by customers. This solution avoided the cost of contract programmers, go-live traumas and long lead times.

Innovation in Customer Service

Kansas City Power & Light was awarded the Innovation in Customer Service award in the Level I Class. Nancy McCurry, Supervisor, Outage Management System accepted the award for Kansas City Power & Light.

Kansas City Power & Light customer communication improved significantly, especially detailed outage information, following a multi-phase project which centralized data compilation . Field trips for crews are minimized and timely information to customers is provided utilizing meter reading technology. Large C&I customers receive outage information via email, pager or text message.

Benton PUD was awarded the Innovation in Customer Service award in the Level II class. Jon Meyer, Supervisor, Customer Systems accepted the award for Benton PUD.

Benton PUD implemented an EBPP program branded Powerpay to increase customer satisfaction and create operating efficiencies. It provides customers with 24/7 access and options to receive bills with E-bill, to pay automatically with E-pay or one time payment with Quick Pay. Since going live in 2007, the E-bill program has an 8.5% adoption rate.