2014 KITE Award Winners Announced at Knowledge Summit Includes NYPA Chief Information Officer Lena Smart

Energy Central Media Contact: 
Christopher Moyer
(303) 782-4770
cmoyer@energycentral.com

November 19, 2014

AURORA, CO—Energy Central has announced the winners of the Seventh Annual Knowledge, Innovation, Technology and Excellence (KITE) Awards Presented on November 11th in a special ceremony at the Knowledge Summit in Newport Beach, California. The KITE Awards represent the utility industry’s premier recognition for IT, Customer Service, and Operations executives.

"There were many great nominees this year, but these winners stood out as pioneers in their categories - helping to mold more intelligent utilities through their work in improving operational efficiencies, integrating new technologies, and improving relationships with customers,” commented Mark Johnson, Vice President of Energy Central. “Not only that, but they’re setting trends for the rest of the industry to follow. They are guiding their peers to higher standards of excellence.”

2014 Innovation Award winners include

CIO of the Year, Large Utility: 
Sunil (Sonny) Garg, Chief Information & Innovation Officer, Exelon Corporation. Sonny is responsible for transforming information technology at the nation’s leading competitive energy provider. Recognizing this is no small task, Sonny led the rollout of a comprehensive IT strategy linked directly to Exelon’s corporate vision. “Advance Progress Together” was developed collaboratively using employee interviews, focus groups, and an ideation crowd-sourcing tool. Sonny challenged IT employees to contribute, expand on, and vote for ideas that resonated, increasing employee buy-in and ownership. Advance Progress Together outlines five strategic imperatives for IT:

1. Delivering high quality services; 
2. Modernizing the IT infrastructure and network; 
3. Investing in employees; 
4. Investing in high-value technology; 
5. Security

CIO of the Year, Small Utility: 
Lena Smart, CIO, New York Power Authority. Lena’s long-term goal has been to strengthen and improve all IT functions, making sure day-to-day operations are aligned with NYPA’s overall mission and strategic vision. While initiating a major operations network upgrade (begun in 2013 and continuing through 2016), Lena embedded IT expertise into NYPA’s various business units; Increased communication has resulted in better understanding of each group’s needs. In addition to the improved coordination, system security has also been greatly enhanced.

Customer Service leader of the year, Large Utility: 
John Malloy, Vice President of Customer Services, Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E and KU). Mr. Malloy’s long-term strategic vision was and is to transform the customer’s contact channels by leveraging customer facing technology in order to build the preeminent “mobile enabled customer self-service experience.”

During 2013, John directed a customer contact channel analysis to ascertain how LG&E and KU compared to the industry and to assess future contact channel trends outside of the utility space. This analysis supported his key strategic initiative of: launching a dynamic, responsively designed website and mobile enabled customer self-service platform, an enhanced mobile enabled outage map, and stronger website tracking tools.

Customer Service Leader of the Year, Small Utility: 
Mercy Castro, Utility Service Administrator, Guam Power Authority. Mercy broke down divisional silos and manifested leadership to get the project executed successfully. Her clear communication and leadership by example propelled her organization and inspired other business units to move forward despite limited resources and obstacles. She and the team’s efforts garnered a 13% positive increase in our organization's 2013 residential customer service satisfaction survey. Major cost reductions occurred within her division along with a quantum leap in productivity and capability.

Operations Leader of the Year, Large Utility:
Andrew (Andy) Vesey, Executive Vice President & COO, The AES Corporation. Andy’s overarching goal is to achieve and sustain world-class operating levels across at AES. The programs he has put in place and his efforts to strengthen the culture at AES have not only led to measurable improvements in the company’s operational, technical and financial performances, but have also advanced and benefited the industry. The resulting standards enabled, AES Tietê, the third largest private generation company in Brazil, to define their asset management systems, determine operational enablers and controls, implement plans, assess performance and identify opportunities to improve.

Operations Leader of the Year, Small Utility:
Ronald E. Davis, General Manager, Burbank Water & Power Under Ron Davis’ leadership, Burbank Water and Power made a bold commitment to procure 33% of its electricity through external renewable resources by 2020, becoming the first utility in North America to set this goal. Incorporating renewable energy sources into a utility’s business is complicated due to the highly variable nature of wind and solar energy and the higher costs that these resources incur. Burbank has served as a trend setter and inspiration for utilities in the energy-conscious state of California. Following Burbank’s lead, the entire state has pledged to source 33% of its energy from renewables by 2020.

About Energy Central:
Energy Central was founded in 1996 to satisfy the global power industry's need for a reliable, trusted information hub where executives and field representatives alike could share ideas and discuss concepts that could alter the future of electric energy. Energy Central provides groundbreaking research, insightful reports and analytics, advisory services, and original, thought-provoking commentary in print, online and events on energy-driven topics, such as utility business, smart grid, renewable energy, energy storage, transmission and distribution, generation and utility analytics. Visit EnergyCentral.com.

About NYPA
NYPA is the nation's largest state public power organization, through the operation of its 16 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. NYPA uses no tax money or state credit. It finances its operations through the sale of bonds and revenues earned in large part through sales of electricity. More than 70 percent of the electricity NYPA produces is clean renewable hydropower. Follow @NYPAenergy on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WordPress, YouTube, and LinkedIn.