SAN DIEGO, Nov. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) was recognized with top honors at the annual PA Consulting Group (PA) ReliabilityOne™ and ServiceOne awards ceremony, winning the ReliabilityOne Award for reliability performance among utilities in the western states and Canada for the eighth year in a row. The ReliabilityOne Award is given annually to the utilities that have achieved outstanding reliability performance and have excelled in delivering reliable electric service to their customers.

"At SDG&E we are committed to deploying new technology that will improve reliability and our customer's experience," said David L. Geier, vice president of electric operations for SDG&E. "From our linemen to our customer care center, SDG&E is customer-focused and continually investing in cost-efficient solutions for furthering reliability."

In the last eight years SDG&E has taken an aggressive approach to improving reliability.  A key achievement in 2012 was the completion of the new Outage Management System (OMS), which leverages real-time data from 1.4 million smart meters.  The OMS system employs smart grid technology to speed up the detection of power outages, helping SDG&E to respond to an outage faster than ever before.

"A customer-first commitment tends to pervade the company culture of ReliabilityOne Award winners," said Jeff Lewis, PA Consulting Group's ReliabilityOne Program Director. "SDG&E has proven itself an industry leader in reliability that prioritizes the customer over everything else."

All utilities operating electric delivery networks in North America are eligible for consideration for the ReliabilityOne Award. There are a total of five regional awards including Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Plains and West. 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 an on-site 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.

In addition to the ReliabilityOne Award, SDG&E was recognized with the ServiceOne Balanced Scorecard Achievement Award. The Balanced Scorecard Achievement Award recognizes companies that provide outstanding performance within selected areas of customer service. As a recipient of this award, SDG&E has demonstrated best practices and excellence in operations along the components of cost, service level, and safety particular to an area of customer service.

The awards were presented at the 2013 ReliabilityOne and ServiceOne awards ceremony held on Nov. 20 in New York City.

SDG&E is a regulated public utility that provides safe and reliable energy service to 3.4 million consumers through 1.4 million electric meters and 861,000 natural gas meters in San Diego and southern Orange counties. The utility's area spans 4,100 square miles. SDG&E is committed to creating ways to help customers save energy and money every day. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego.  Connect with SDG&E's Customer Contact Center at 800-411-7343, on Twitter (@SDGE) and Facebook.

About PA Consulting Group
PA Consulting Group (PA) is an employee-owned firm of over 2,500 people, operating globally from offices across North America, Europe, the Nordics, the Gulf and Asia Pacific. PA has experts in energy, financial services, life sciences and healthcare, manufacturing, government and public services, defense and security, telecommunications, transport and logistics. PA's deep industry knowledge, together with skills in management consulting, technology and innovation, allows them to challenge conventional thinking and deliver exceptional results with lasting impact. PA has partnered with energy clients for over 25 years to help them understand the challenges they face and define and implement an effective strategic response. PA's ReliabilityOne™ 2013 awards are presented to electric utilities providing their customers with the highest levels of reliability in the industry. PA's ReliabilityOne™ study is based on standard industry reliability statistics that measure the frequency and duration of electric power outages and has been analyzing electric utility performance since 1987. For more information about PA Consulting Group, visit www.paconsulting.com/energy.

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SOURCE San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)