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OUC Wins Award for Engineering Excellence
Central Florida Engineers’ Week Honors OUC as Outstanding Organization of the
Year
ORLANDO –
Adept crisis management and sound planning for the future in 2004
earned OUC-The Reliable One a major honor to kick off 2005.
The organizers of the 2005 Central Florida Engineers Week recently named OUC the
Outstanding Organization of the Year – Public Sector for its work restoring
power after a trio of hurricanes and its yearlong rollout of new construction
projects.
OUC’s restoration efforts following Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne have
been well documented. Despite unprecedented damage, OUC met or beat its
restoration projections for each hurricane.
In addition to coordinating three successful power restoration efforts last
year, OUC continued to build for the future. In 2004, OUC completed a new
electric substation on Kaley Street, upgraded and expanded its Sky Lake water
treatment plant and constructed a new district cooling plant to expand chilled
water service in downtown Orlando.
These overall engineering efforts earned OUC the Central Florida award.
“OUC completed three important projects last year to meet the growing demand for
electric, water and chilled water service in Orlando,” said Donna Friis, P.E,
President, Central Florida Engineers’ Week Banquet. “And then came the
hurricanes of 2004, and OUC employees stepped up and coordinated the most
massive response in OUC’s 82-year history.”
Each year representatives from the professional societies in the Central Florida
area join forces to recognize engineering excellence in the region and promote
engineering to the public and future engineers. The Florida Engineering Society
nominated OUC for its successful completion of the three construction projects
in addition to the utility’s unprecedented efforts to restore power to customers
following each of the hurricanes.
“A tremendous amount of work goes on behind the scenes to complete projects like
these on schedule and deliver the reliable power, water and chilled water
service that our customers expect,” said Ken Ksionek, OUC General Manager and
CEO. “Earning this recognition from our peers is a special tribute to the hard
working men and women at OUC.”
The 2005 Participating Societies were the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical
Engineers, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of
Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers, American Society of
Highway Engineers, American Society of Plumbing Engineers, Florida Engineering
Society, Institute of Industrial Engineering, National Society of Black
Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and Society of Women
Engineers.
Established in 1923 by
a special act of the Florida Legislature, OUC—The
Reliable One is the second
largest municipal utility in Florida. OUC provides electric and water services
to more than 196,000 customers in Orlando, St. Cloud and parts of unincorporated
Orange and Osceola counties.
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