GRU had an excellent year in 2018

As the summer of 2018 approached, our customer operations director, Kinn’zon Hutchinson, proposed an idea to help ease the burden on customers during high-usage months.

The idea was to offer automatic 14-day payment extensions so customers in need of extra time wouldn’t have to call to make arrangements. It was at least one measure of comfort we could offer folks who sometimes struggle to make ends meet.

In May we began promoting the Summer Extension Program to customers, offering this benefit from June through September. When the program concluded we discovered amazing results. We had reduced payment arrangements from more than 42,000 (June-September, 2017) to about 6,500 (June-September, 2018). The program was so successful we decided to continue it indefinitely and now offer automatic 14-day payment extensions throughout the year.

This is just one example of how we added value to our community in 2018, finishing the year in a much better place than where we started. Gainesville Regional Utilities opened 2018 with unanswered questions about governance, the Deerhaven Renewable Generating Station’s operational flexibility and the impact purchasing the plant would have on electric bills; we closed the year with game-changing answers to all three questions.

City voters overwhelming rejected the governance referendum in November, affirming GRU’s direction under the City Commission. In February, GRU reduced electric rates for all customers thanks to the biomass purchase. And by running the carbon-neutral biomass plant more efficiently, we’ve become a state leader in environmental stewardship.

Again, this is just a snapshot of what our folks did to add value to the community in 2018.

Thanks to a continued emphasis on safety, we’ve significantly lowered Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordable injuries, lost-work days and vehicle accidents. We currently average one accident for every 121,000 miles driven, but as always, our goal remains zero!

As one of the most reliable utilities in the state, GRU provided power to its customers 99.99 percent of the time and ranked fourth or better in reliability benchmarks among Florida’s largest public utilities.

GRU’s Water/Wastewater Department continued its proactive maintenance of 1,900 miles of water and sewer lines without raising rates. We’ve begun an initiative to reduce sanitary sewer overflows by inspecting underground lines with special cameras and building hydrological models to predict surges and overflows. We’ve also continued educating customers about what they should and should not flush down toilets (only paper, pee and poo!) or pour down drains (no fat, oil or grease!).

GRU’s natural gas prices remained the lowest in the state, and our department has gone three consecutive years with zero findings in annual regulatory inspections of the natural gas system.

Under the direction of our Community Relations Department and its Employee Volunteer Network, GRU employees logged 1,300 volunteer hours, and through our joint charitable campaign, GRU and general government employees donated $50,000 back to the community.

This list of accomplishments speaks to a tradition of excellence and continuous improvement that carries us into 2019.

In the upcoming year, GRU plans on requesting bids for its first commercial-grade solar facility. Whether we ultimately lease or purchase a facility, our goal is to further increase our renewable footprint with no additional costs.

We will continue replacing street lights with efficient LEDs and making the poles compatible with Gainesville’s vision of a “smart city.” We will also receive and analyze bids for smart meters, which will give customers more control over their usage and finalize a report on the feasibility of providing city residents with broadband.

Finally, GRU will implement a multi-year inclusion and diversity program designed to help the utility better reflect Gainesville’s demographic makeup.

Two-thousand eighteen was an excellent year for GRU, but 2019 will be a pivotal year as we take advantage of proven solar and metering technologies while breaking new ground with our efforts to be an inclusive workplace.

Ed Bielarski is general manager of Gainesville Regional Utilities.