National Grid was recognized by PA Consulting as a recipient of the 2021 ReliabilityOne® Award for Outstanding Reliability Performance in the Northeast Region Suburban/Rural service area – recognizing the very best suburban/rural service area investor owned utilities in the United States. To be eligible for this recognition, a utility must deliver a reliability performance ranked as the top achiever/performer in this demographic/density category.

“Safe and reliable electricity networks are essential to delivering the service our customers expect and deserve,” said Rudy Wynter, New York President for National Grid. “Reliability is the foundation of what we do and, as one of National Grid’s top priorities, we have backed this commitment with significant investments in our energy delivery systems and in retaining one of the best field operations teams in the industry. This award is testament to that team and to the 4,000 upstate New York men and women who work day and night, weekends and holidays, to deliver security and peace of mind for our customers.”

National Grid has safely met or exceeded reliability targets established by New York State Department of Public Service for 13 years running. The company has also made significant investments in its infrastructure and network to minimize storm-related damage and service interruptions. Company storm restoration efforts have evolved over the past decade by standing up an emergency planning team that works around the clock focusing on forestry, staging crews, advanced analytics, and reporting tools. National Grid also employs a classification index that anticipates restoration times based on storm types and is currently exploring artificial intelligence to assist with better damage and interruption predictions.

“For 21 years, the ReliabilityOne® Awards have highlighted outstanding electric utility providers who are focused on resiliently building a more positive future for their customers,” said Gregg Edeson, PA Consulting’s ReliabilityOne® Program Director. “We are pleased to name National Grid as an industry leader for delivering outstanding service and restoration efforts while balancing customer needs and optimizing investments.”

All utilities operating less dense electric delivery networks in North America are eligible for consideration for the Outstanding Reliability Performance in a suburban and rural service area award. There are eight metropolitan service regional awards including Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Plains, Mountains, West, Southeast, and Southwest. The selection of provisional recipients is based primarily on system reliability statistics that measure the frequency and duration of customer outages. After provisional recipients are selected, each company undergoes a certification process which provides an independent review and confirmation of the policies, processes and systems used to collect, analyze and report a company's reliability results.