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January 1, 2009
Organization Check Up Clarifies Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities
| For More Information |
Tim Blodgett
Hometown Connections
303-526-4515
tblodgett@hometownconnections.com
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Hometown Consultants Conduct Review of Utility Operations
The demands of new technologies, new services, a new energy economy, and changing customer and regulatory expectations are pressing public power managers to take a critical look at all aspects of electric utility operations. To obtain expert advice and a greater level of transparency to utility customers and staff, the Washington City, Utah, Power Department brought in the consulting team from Hometown Connections to conduct a thorough review of all electric utility operations. The reviewers are analyzing areas of operations that are working well and areas in need of improvement.
Through the consulting service known as the Organization Check Up, the professional staff of Hometown Connections conducts an on-site workshop over one or two days with utility staff and governing board officials. Hometown Connections examines the primary components of utility management and operations, including:
• Customer service and communications
• Power supply
• Distribution operations
• Administration, accounting and finance
• Planning
• Human resources
• Labor relations
• Governance
Following the on-site portion, Hometown Connections provides a written report that documents the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for each utility. With over 11 years of experience serving more than 650 public power utilities, the Hometown staff is acclaimed for its expertise in public power management best practices and is often asked to present the Check Up results during city council or other official meetings.
“The approach we took to the check-up was to be as open as possible about every aspect of the department regardless of positive or negative results,” said Kelly Carlson, director of power in Washington City. “We were also interested in finding ways to improve in areas that were deficient that we may not have been aware of.”
Many employees were involved in the two days of on-site discussions with Hometown Connections, including the power director, city manager, superintendent, human resources director, and the finance director plus virtually every power department employee and several from departments that support utility operations. The objective of these discussions was to document what is being done today and to determine individual and organizational roles. The results of these discussions were then analyzed by the Hometown Connections team and evaluated against their experience with comparable public power utility operations. The team provided a written report with summary recommendations.
Overall, Hometown Connections found the Washington City Power Department to be a very well run electric utility that needs to address increasing challenges created by new demands in the power supply market and the community’s rapid growth. Hometown recommended that Washington City develop a comprehensive plan to address customer confusion and dissatisfaction over anticipated increases in their electric bills. “Our greatest concern is to improve customer communications and service,” Carlson said. “On the advice of Hometown Connections, we have hired a customer service representative to improve our performance in that area.” The utility is also looking to upgrade the information available on monthly utility bills, expand its energy savings programs, and improve the features and functionality of the utility Web site.
The city of Princeton, Ill., was looking for an assessment of its utility billing, distribution, and customer communications practices. “We brought in Tim Blodgett and Steve VanderMeer of Hometown Connections because it is important to obtain honest information from outsiders with an objective point of view,” said Jason Bird, superintendent of electric and telecommunications. Employees from the electric, billing, economic development, and human resources departments joined the city manager and city clerk in the on-site portion of the evaluation.
Hometown recommended that Princeton work to improve communications with customers through the utility Web site. Bird said, “We now realize that our Web site is too plain and lacking in content. Because the hit rate shows our customers are visiting our site regularly, we will add more information about our energy efficiency programs, awards and achievements. It’s no longer sufficient to rely on word of mouth alone.” In addition, Princeton is installing an automated phone system for distributing timely information about outages and repairs.
“The professional backgrounds and public power expertise of the Hometown staff played an important role in the success of this project,” Bird noted. “Because he worked for several years in a city manager’s office in Colorado, Steve VanderMeer was able to communicate very effectively with our city officials. Tim Blodgett’s background in utility operations impressed our city commissioners as well. Hometown Connections understands our size public power utility and offers concrete, real-world advice.”
“We greatly enjoyed working with Washington City and the city of Princeton, and we continue to be impressed with what public power is capable of doing,” said Tim Blodgett, president and CEO, Hometown Connections. “It is exciting to see how well public power systems match up against their much larger investor-owned and cooperative neighbors. For many years public power has prided itself on its low rates and high reliability. While those are certainly important achievements, public power really shines in customer service. That has come through clearly in virtually every one of the Organization Check Ups we have conducted.”
Visit the Hometown Connections Web Site for service details.
• Hometown Connections
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