Georgetown Electric Utility honored with national award for outstanding safety practices

Georgetown Electric Utility has earned the American Public Power Association’s Safety Award of Excellence for safe operating practices in 2019. The utility earned first place in the category for utilities with 60,000 to 109,999 worker-hours of annual worker exposure.

“Strong safety programs are essential to ensuring that electric utility employees are informed and trained on safe work procedures,” said Brandon Wylie, Chair of the Association’s Safety Committee and Director of Training & Safety at Electric Cities of Georgia. “The utilities receiving this award have proven that protecting the safety of their employees is a top priority.”

More than 335 utilities entered the annual Safety Awards, which is the highest number of entrants in the history of the program. Entrants were placed in categories according to their number of worker-hours and ranked based on the most incident-free records during 2019. The incidence rate, used to judge entries, is based on the number of work-related reportable injuries or illnesses and the number of worker-hours during 2019, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

“Employee safety is our topmost priority,” General Manager Daniel Bethapudi said. “I’m consistently impressed with the professionalism and commitment to our customers and safety shown by Georgetown’s electric utility employees. This award shows that our safety program is one of the best in the nation. I would like to thank all our electric utility employees for this great achievement.”

The Safety Awards have been held annually for the past 60 years. The American Public Power Association is the voice of nonprofit, community-owned utilities that power 2,000 towns and cities nationwide.

The City of Georgetown electric utility started in 1910 when the residents of Georgetown approved bonds for the construction of the Light and Water Works plant on Ninth Street. Today, the City of Georgetown electric utility serves about 25,000 customers in its service area, which includes most of the Georgetown city limits as well as areas on the north side of Round Rock.