Green Mountain Power exceeds reliability standards

"Our customers consistently tell us that providing reliable power is the
most important thing we do, and in 2007 we had fewer customer hours without
power, despite significant storms hitting our service territory," said Mary
Powell, senior vice president and chief operating officer. "Major
investments in tree-trimming and other system upgrades have had a direct
effect on improving system reliability."
An analysis of the causes of all the outages in Green Mountain Power's
system during 2007 shows that outages caused by tree branches within the
rights-of-way were at the lowest point in five years. Upgrades to the system
and a fast response to the outages meant that the total amount of time
customers were out due to tree branches within the rights-of-way was well
below previous years.
Green Mountain Power had an average of 1.38 outages per customer, with an
average duration of 1.79 hours. Although utilities are allowed to exclude
major storms from these calculations, Green Mountain Power's vegetation
management and storm restoration efforts enabled the Company to restore
power quickly enough that none of the severe storms last year met the
exclusion standard. Green Mountain Power's performance was significantly
better than the national average of 2.3 hours per outage, as reported by the
Edison Electric Institute.
Although trees caused the most outages in 2007, other significant causes
were equipment failure, other weather events and animals.
The Company also met or exceeded all of its service quality standards in
2007. It answered 85 percent of calls within 20 seconds, well above the 75
percent standard as well as achieved 90 percent overall customer
satisfaction.
Green Mountain Power also achieved its financial goals in 2007. Operating
revenues were $229 million in 2007, as compared with $214 million in 2006,
with net income of $10.7 million in 2007, as compared to $10.1 million 2006.
"Financial stability is a critical component of our ability to provide
premier service to our customers. And while we are thrilled at both our
financial and customer service performance for 2007, we strive to exceed
these results in the future so that we can provide even better service to
our customers," said Ms. Powell.
In the interest of reporting transparently to its customers, the Company
publishes the results of its service quality standards on its website at
www.greenmountainpower.biz.
Green Mountain Power (www.greenmountainpower.biz) is an electric utility
owned by Northern New England Energy Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary
of Gaz Métro, a leading Québec energy company with a long history of
investment in Vermont. Green Mountain Power transmits, distributes and sells
electricity and utility construction services in the State of Vermont in a
service territory with approximately one quarter of Vermont's population. It
serves approximately 94,000 customers.