Photo courtesy of Marshall Municipal Utilities Staff at Marshall Municipal Utilities’ electric department were recognized the American Public Power Association for putting in safe working hours and providing “exceptionally reliable” power in 2021.

MARSHALL — Like Tom Bodett of the Motel 6 commercial, Marshall Municipal Utilities keeps the lights on.

MMU was recognized nationally for recording no outages in 2021. The workers at MMU were also recognized for a safe year as well.

Last week, Marshall Municipal Utilities received two national recognitions for their reliable electric service and worker safety in 2021. Both awards came from the American Public Power Association (APPA) a group that represents more than 2,000 community-owned electric utilities.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the people I work with,” said David Schelkoph, general manager of Marshall Municipal Utilities. “Everyone here works as a team,” from the electric and water departments to the office staff, he said.

Schelkoph said the awards were a big achievement for MMU. On the reliability side of things, the utility didn’t have a single outage last year.

“You just don’t hear that,” he said.

MMU earned a first-place Safety Award of Excellence for 2021. A total of 318 public electric utilities from around the country entered the running for Safety Awards, APPA said. Utilities were placed in categories based on the number of worker hours they had in 2021, and ranked based on how much time they had without incidents or work-related injuries.

“In our industry, safety is the top priority,” said Bob Scudder, chairman of APPA’s Safety Committee and Industrial Hygiene and Corporate Risk Manager at Grand River Dam Authority. “This is a commitment that needs to come from the top down and permeate every aspect of operations. These awarded utilities have embraced this priority, and they deserve to be celebrated.”

“It’s a testament to the employees here, and their work ethic,” Schelkoph said.

MMU line workers have a culture of working safe and being well-trained, he said. It’s an important attitude to have for a job that involves electricity.

“We all recognize the importance of going home to our families each day,” Schelkoph said.

MMU ranked first in the category for utilities that have about 30,000 to 60,000 worker hours a year. Schelkoph said the category covers a large number of public electric utilities across the country.

Schelkoph said the reliability award is another major accomplishment for MMU.

In giving its reliability recognitions, APPA looks at outage data gathered through a subscription tracking service, and compares the data to national statistics tracked by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

MMU had no power outages last year, Schelkoph said.

“That’s a really major achievement,” he said.

He said Marshall customers have benefited from projects like MMU’s moving its electric lines underground, where they’re protected from windstorms and lightning strikes. The utility also has a proactive maintenance program, where workers check for electrical connections that need to be fixed or replaced before they fail, he said.

Nationwide, the average public power customer has their lights out for less than half the amount of time that customers of other types of utilities do, APPA said.

“We commend these utilities for their hard work when it comes to keeping the lights on in their communities,” said Alex Hofmann, APPA’s vice president of technical and operations services.

Schelkoph said having public utilities instead of a private power company is a benefit for Marshall residents.

“We can be responsive to the customer,” he said.