Foley, AL. — There has been plenty to celebrate so far this year at Riviera Utilities. Their commitment to providing safe, reliable utility services and continued community investment has been recognized through the award of four major industry awards.
“I would like to commend every Riviera Utilities employee for their dedication to Baldwin County,” said James Wallace, Chief Operating Officer. “They weren’t working toward these awards when they made the decision every day to protect our services, wear their safety gear, look out for each other, and serve this community. They were doing their jobs and it’s an honor to be recognized for it.”
Since January 2023, Riviera has been awarded the Platinum Level Jeff Cook Award for Safety Excellence from Electric Cities of Georgia; the eReliability Award and the RP3 Award from the American Public Power Association; and the 2023 Baldwin County Environmental Stewardship Award for Riviera’s Master Environmental Education Program with the Baldwin County Alabama Cooperative Extension office.
The Platinum Level Jeff Cook Award for Safety Excellence from Electric Cities of Georgia is awarded to qualifying utilities after a year of third-party operational audits covering equipment, vehicles, facilities, training, and policies. Riviera Utilities was awarded a final score of 93. In addition to the Jeff Cook Award, Riviera was awarded a perfect score of 100 points to receive the Diamond RP3 Award from the American Public Power Association. This designation recognizes utilities that demonstrate high proficiency in reliability, safety, workforce development, and system improvements.
Riviera Utilities' electric service has grown by over 15,500 customers and over 300 miles of power line since 2008. Annual inspections of underground and overhead wire, regimented tree trimming by Riviera’s internal vegetation management department, and proactive pole replacement have customers seeing a 55% decrease in the average amount of time per outage.
“Our employees’ commitment to safety is a value to our organization and the communities we serve,” said Kevin Saucier, Safety and Risk Superintendent. “The recent awards aren’t by ‘accident.’ They continuously strive to set the bar of proficiency higher and higher every day.”
In addition to providing high-quality service to Baldwin County, Riviera Utilities employees donate their time and industry knowledge through the Master Environmental Education Program. Our engineers, technicians, and leaders from electric, water, wastewater, gas, and broadband visit local schools and teach classes on the core principles like how energy is generated, used, and stored.
“Having the representatives from Riviera Utilities speak to our 10th-grade students is a wonderful opportunity to teach our future homeowners about general electrical safety,” said Jennifer Janey, teacher at Robertsdale High School. “It also exposes the students to career paths available to them serving families and friends in their community. Some of our students have already acted on this opportunity and pursued an internship at Riviera. We appreciate how generous they are with their time, energy, and knowledge.”
“Being recognized for the time and commitment to providing high-quality utility services to Baldwin County is appreciated, but we don’t plan to stop there,” Wallace said.
According to Riviera leadership, they will continue to invest time, training, and resources into their community and their employers.
“Our goal is to help make Baldwin County better however we can.”
Riviera Utilities is a public utility company serving the Eastern Shore, central, and south Baldwin County communities. For media requests or for more information about Riviera, please email communications@rivierautilities.com.
