Four Iowa municipal electric utilities were part of the list of one hundred twenty-five utilities that have earned the American Public Power Association’s Safety Award of Excellence for safe operating practices in 2019, APPA reported on April 20. Congratulations to Coon Rapids Municipal Utilities, Independence Light & Power, Lenox Municipal Light and Power, and Waverly Utilities.

More than 335 utilities entered the annual safety awards, which is the highest number of entrants in the history of the program.

Entrants were placed in categories according to their number of worker-hours and ranked based on the most incident-free records during 2019.

The incidence rate, used to judge entries, is based on the number of work-related reportable injuries or illnesses and the number of worker-hours during 2019, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“Strong safety programs are essential to ensuring that electric utility employees are informed and trained on safe work procedures,” said Brandon Wylie, chair of APPA’s Safety Committee and director of training & safety at Electric Cities of Georgia. “The utilities receiving this award have proven that protecting the safety of their employees is a top priority.”

The safety awards have been held annually for the last 60 years.

The Smart Energy Provider (SEP) designation is a best practices designation for utilities that show commitment to and proficiency in energy efficiency, distributed generation, renewable energy, and environmental initiatives.

Now in its second year, the SEP program aims to garner national recognition for utility efforts to incorporate energy efficiency and sustainability while providing affordable electric service. Additionally, obtaining the SEP designation will help public power utilities benchmark and evaluate their work in these areas against a set of industry best practices.

Currently 67 public power utilities hold an SEP designation.

For more information—or to start your application—visit https://www.publicpower.org/smart-energy-provider. Questions on the program? Contact SEP@PublicPower.org.