Gulf Power gets high marks at Plant Smith

Gulf Power's Plant Smith recently set a safety milestone and the company received high marks in customer satisfaction.

Safety is a way of life for one group of employees in Northwest Florida. Gulf Power's Plant Smith near Panama City has set a new safety record at the company. It has been more than six years since anyone working at Plant Smith missed a day of work due to injury, and more than four years have passed since the plant suffered any kind of recordable accident as defined by OSHA - the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

For Gulf Power, the issue of safety became very real four years ago. A Gulf Power lineman was electrocuted in the line of duty. Gulf Power president and CEO Susan Story said that tragedy made everyone rethink the importance of safety on the job.

Gulf Power Company and the other Southern Company utilities have been rated highest in customer satisfaction among all electric utilities in the nation by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. This is the eighth consecutive year Gulf Power and Southern Company have earned this honor.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index is based on interviews with residential customers across a number of industries including the energy industry and electric utilities. Companies are ranked based on customer responses in six key areas: perceived quality, customer expectations, perceived value, customer satisfaction, customer complaints and customer loyalty.

Southern Company scored 82 out of a possible 100, putting it on top of the electric utilities, and well above the industry average of 73.