Mike Allmand, above center, President and CEO of Ripley Power and Light Company, along with Power and Light employees Krissi Miller (at Mike's right) and Office Manager Lucy Harrison (at his left) receive the national RP3 Award from Paul Allen, far left, RP3 Panel Chair and Vice President at Nashville Electric Service, and Marc Gerken, APPA Board Chair and President and CEO of American Municipal Power Inc. in Columbus, Ohio. Krissi and Lucy played a key role in getting the RP3 application ready.

Reliable Public Power Provider

As a customer of Ripley Power and Light Company, you can be assured that you are receiving the most reliable electric service possible.

Ripley Power and Light is one of only 154 public utilities out of more than 2,000 public power utilities across the United States to earn recognition for providing our customers safe, reliable and efficient electric service.

In March 2010, Ripley Power and Light received the Platinum Level Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3®) Award from the American Public Power Association. Only 96 utilities in this country hold the RP3 Platinum status.

"Our employees work hard to provide our customers with the highest level of electric service possible," said Mike Allmand, Power and Light's President and CEO. "Joining a select few utilities across the country to be recognized at a national level is a much appreciated recognition for this hard work."

The recognition also should help make Power and Light s service area in Ripley, Henning, Halls and Gates attractive to industrial prospects considering locating in the area, Allmand said. "Industrial and commercial customers depend on reliable electricity; they cannot afford to have down time."

"The RP3 designation represents a high level of service, " said Paul Allen, Vice President at Nashville Electric Service and Chairman of APPA's RP3 review panel. "Utility companies winning this award stand out as models of safe, reliable and efficient utility operations."

The RP3 award is given to public power utilities that demonstrate proficiency in four key areas: reliable power delivery, safe work practices, workforce development and system improvement and innovation. Criteria in each category are based on sound business practices.

"Though we are a small utility, we consider ourselves very progressive," Allmand explained. He pointed out several examples &

• Ripley Power and Light was the first utility in the Tennessee Valley to build a back-up generator for an industrial customer.

• It was the second utility in West Tennessee to use SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition system) to monitor the electric system. SCADA helps the utility avoid outages and restore power as quickly as possible if an outage should occur.

• Power and Light installed automated meter reading to more efficiently read each customer's meter over its electric power lines.

• The utility also is progressive in offering customers cash incentives to switch from gas to electric heating and water heating, and to help them finance a variety of energy-efficient improvements, Allmand said.

• Power and Light installed dark fiber around Ripley and to Halls and Henning. Companies can lease the fiber for transferring large amounts of data to other locations within the system and most anywhere in the United States.

• Power and Light is the only utility system east of the Mississippi River to install a sophisticated load control system that is being studied for use in other electric utilities across the country.

"Our customers deserve these efforts," said Power and Light Board Members Kenny Parham, Elizabeth Lague and Tommy Sanders. "We will continue to look for ways to make Ripley Power and Light the best municipal utility possible."