Zeeland Board of Public Works (BPW) has been honored with both the Excellence in Reliability Award and the Safety Award of Excellence from the American Public Power Association (APPA). These awards highlight BPW’s commitment to delivering safe, reliable, and high-quality electric service to the Zeeland community.
The Excellence in Reliability Award recognizes public power utilities that consistently outperform national industry averages for system reliability. Zeeland BPW has demonstrated outstanding performance by minimizing outages and ensuring quick response times, reinforcing its mission to provide dependable service to customers.
The Safety Award of Excellence acknowledges utilities that prioritize worker and public safety, implementing industry-leading safety practices to protect employees and the community. The BPW received the Diamond designation, reflecting their proactive approach to training, operational standards, and overall safety culture.
More than 240 utilities entered the annual Safety Awards for 2025. The entrants are placed in accordance with their number of worker-hours and ranked based on the most incident-free records and overall state of their safety programs and culture during 2025. The incidence rate is based on the number of work-related reportable injuries or illnesses and the number of worker-hours during 2025, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
“Our team is deeply committed to a culture where safety comes first in everything we do,” said Andrew Boatright, General Manager of Zeeland BPW. “This recognition reflects the discipline, training, and shared responsibility our employees bring to their work every day to protect one another and the community we serve.
As a public power utility, we're community-owned rather than shareholder-run. 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.
“In Public Power, safety excellence isn’t achieved by chance. It’s earned through unwavering discipline, strong leadership, and a culture where every team member looks out for one another,” said Jon Beasley, Chair of APPA’s Safety Committee and Vice-President of Electric Cities of GA. “These Safety Award recipients stand as proof that commitment and consistency save lives, strengthen communities, and set the benchmark for our entire industry,”
We are proud to serve Zeeland with power that’s safe, reliable, and community-focused.
