Public Power - September/October 2007 - (Page 20)

Public Power (Every) Week Idaho Falls includes its employees in planning for Public Power Week. Photo courtesy city of Idaho Falls ners on substations near public roads with information on its road and bike races. It also distributes business cards about the races to local businesses, including restaurants and gyms. During Public Power Week—or indeed any week of the year—there is no limit to the creative means utilities employ to reach their customers. Oklahoma’s GRDA opted for a billboard campaign to present one face to its many constituents. The authority is a wholesale power supplier, but it’s also a lake management agency. “We want the public to see us as an economic development engine for this part of the state,” said Alberty. From October 2006 through February this year, GRDA-sponsored billboards posed such questions as: “How do we flip your switch?” and “7,000 acre playground. Got toys?” The answer on every billboard 20 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2007 was: Find out at GRDA.com. “We hoped that people would go to our Web site and learn more about us,” said Alberty. He believes the campaign worked. “We saw increased traffic to our Web site.” Alberty thinks municipal utilities could consider something similar. Instead of posing questions on billboards, a utility might pose them on T-shirts for its employees or on bumper stickers. Same idea, different medium. Across the country, municipal utilities are offering customers the option of signing up for a rapid alert system. Braintree Electric Light Department offers this service as part of its online billing system, said Stak Bregnard. The utility can get information to customers by e-mail, fax or voice mail messages. It’s their choice. “For sudden developments, this is a quick way to get the word out.” And if there’s an emergency, such as an outage, that affects just one part of the city, the utility can notify the affected customers, said Stak Bregnard. Idaho Falls Power plans to implement a similar system, said the utility’s Ashton. He notes that it isn’t just for emergencies. “Every now and then, a newspaper article appears that isn’t quite right. We could use this system to set the record straight.” Earlier this year, the Long Island Power Authority launched a podcast called Watts New @ LIPA. The podcast, posted on the utility’s Web site at the beginning of each month, offers the latest in LIPA news, customer service programs and energy saving tips. “We’re one of the first utilities to use podcasting,” said Marco Cucci, manager of new media development. But he doesn’t think that such a communications technology is beyond the reach of many municipal utilities. “Our Web team is only two people, and it’s a simple process. You just need a microphone and a computer. Any municipal utility could do it.” In addition to the podcast, which is becoming one of the most frequently visited pages on LIPA’s Web site, the utility offers RSS—really simple syndication—feeds. Subscribers to the service can read the latest news, headlines and summaries, on their own computer. “We find that as the number of subscribers increases, so do visits to our Web site news center,” said Cucci. LIPA also maintains a Storm Center on its Web site that provides tips on preparing for any kind of storm. In addition, customers can view three different interactive outage maps, one of the island, one of all the towns and one of all the villages. The information on the maps is updated every half hour, and can be accessed by cell phone, personal digital assistant or computer. Each page of the Storm Center includes telephone numbers for reporting an outage and for customer support and a link to a regional radar image. Around the clock, around the year, public power utilities are using novel techniques and technologies to communicate with their customers. Columbia River PUD’s Roth said the utility thinks of October as public power month. But in fact, every day is Public Power Day. s PUBLIC POWER http://GRDA.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - September/October 2007

Contents Washington Focus 10 Questions Public Power (Every) Week Training Tomorrow’s Work Force What’s in Your Wallet? U.S. Lags in Broadband Deployment Now What? For Engineers Safety Community Broadband For Governing Boards Human Resources Hometown Connections Customer Service DEED Index to Advertisers Advertisers by Category Parting Shot

Public Power - September/October 2007

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