CITY OF OTTAWA UTILITIES DEPARTMENT RECOGNIZED FOR RELIABLE ELECTRIC SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY

Ottawa, Kansas – April 1, 2021—The City of Ottawa Utilities Department has received national recognition for achieving exceptional electric reliability in 2020. The recognition comes from the American Public Power Association (APPA), a trade group that represents more than 2,000 not-for-profit, community-owned electric utilities.

APPA helps electric utilities track power outage and restoration data through its subscription-based eReliability Tracker service. Once per year, APPA’s Reliability Team compares this data to national statistics tracked by the U.S. Energy Information Administration for all types of electric utilities.

“Public power utilities have proven their commitment to serving their community by continuing to lead the nation in reliability,” said Alex Hofmann, APPA’s Vice President of Technical and Operations Services. “These utilities are the best of the best when it comes to keeping the lights on in their communities.”

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.

“We are proud to receive this recognition. It is a testament to the hard work of all our staff to ensure that we keep the City of Ottawa powered,” said Dennis Tharp, Director of Utilities.

We are privileged to have professionals who are dedicated to the betterment of the Ottawa community and focus on ways to provide quality service. Preventative maintenance is

key to having a quality system and our staff is outstanding at making sure there are no

shortcuts when performing these tasks. Systematic upgrades to older parts of our system and advancing technology in all aspects of electrical service along with staff who are willing and able to respond in a timely manner when there are issues create the tools to receive this kind of recognition.

For more information on City of Ottawa Utilities Department and its commitment to reliability, visit www.ottawaks.gov.