General Manager’s letter
Elements of value come in all shapes and sizes… often times, they manifest themselves in ways never imagined. Although TMLP’s core business is providing electricity, our Internet business unit has added tremendous value to TMLP’s array of services over the years and proven invaluable to the City of Taunton.
August 17th, 2010 proved to be a gut-wrenching day for Taunton city officials when a fire occurred in the City Hall early that morning. Multiple millions of dollars in damage was caused and all of the staff were immediately displaced following the fire. Hearing of their plight, TMLP immediately reached out to help. Offices needed to be relocated as did phone and computer/Internet connectivity. Within hours, the TMLP Commissioners’ meeting space/conference rooms at 55 Weir Street were being retrofitted to host the Treasurer, Collector and Auditor’s offices. Maxham School, located on Oak Street, was quickly established as the temporary headquarters for the remainder of City Hall’s staff and offices. Within two days, Internet, phones and computers were hooked up and lines rerouted so that City Hall functions could resume full-swing the following day. Due to TMLP’s partnership with the Taunton Schools and the City of Taunton, availability of TMLP fiber optic assets and TMLP communications expertise, the City of Taunton was able to resume operations with virtually no interruption of service and saved tens of thousands of dollars of avoided costs to the tax payers of the City.
The value-added benefits of being a Public Power Community not only include reliable service, fair rates, and exceptional customer service but include being an integral member of the community. In 2010, we conducted our biennial customer satisfaction survey, conducted by the Center for Research, and received an astounding 94.5% customer satisfaction rating… higher than the local phone, water, sewer, cable and Internet providers. What’s more, the clear majority of responders (97.6%) continued to identify themselves as either an advocate, loyal or satisfied customer. Proudly, we exceeded the ASAI (Average System Availability Index) of 99.9%, a measurement of service which our customers have come to expect.
As accomplishments go, the single greatest accomplishment that took several years to see to fruition was the clean-up of our former West Water Street generating facility, once home to Units 2-7… a site that was a robust producer of kilowatt back in the early 1900s through the late 1970s. TMLP met its responsibility as a good neighbor in 2010 by permanently removing the hazardous materials and structurally unsafe facilities from the location. The $6 million-dollar effort was closely monitored by federal, state and local environmental regulators. The inspectors commented that the way in which we managed the project was done so well that it could be cited as an example of “how to do it right.”
As some have said, success is not how well you do during good times but how well you are able to weather times of adversity. Hard times were felt by many groups of our customers as evidenced by the increased number of customers that had fallen in arrears and the companies in our service territory who were closing their doors after decades of doing business in our service territory. In our minds, it was more important than ever to try to tighten the corporate purse strings and to prioritize our investments in the company not to exceed our revenues. Fortunately, through disciplined and thoughtful planning, we went into 2010 with a slightly lowered PPCA and were able to maintain that level through the duration of the year.
With our new strategic planning initiatives and the establishment of corporate goals that require a detailed vetting process for all new projects, the management committee proposed to place the Unit 10 project on hold until the economics of building a new unit could be supported. This was not an easy decision given the effort that went into the project. However, the decision to delay moving forward was made with input from all of the cooperative members who would’ve had a financial interest in the unit, including the investors buying unit contracts. The goal of the new unit had always been to minimize each party’s risk by stabilizing energy prices in our respective portfolios and to maintain control over the ownership portion of our power purchases. Unfortunately, with the downturn of the economy and the decline in natural gas prices and forward capacity market prices, made this project not prudent in the short term.
Sustainability at TMLP is more than a buzz word; it’s the heart and soul of why we are in business. Our customer-owners have put their faith in TMLP and our team to maintain the value of the organization and preserve the goodwill it has earned from the communities it serves. I have the utmost confidence that the talented and dedicated men and women who work at the TMLP will continue to build upon the value that has been created in our public power company in the years to come.