Atlanta, Ga., Dec. 3, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- CES International, from Atlanta, USA, today presented Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) with a "Go Live" award in recognition of the commissioning of new state-of-the-art systems at the company's Control Centre in Craigavon. The CES product suite, called Centricity, is at the heart of NIE's call-handling and trouble-management systems, based at the Control Centre.
Welcoming the award on behalf of NIE, Billy Graham, Managing Director of Transmission and Distribution at NIE, said: "This is a tremendous accomplishment by the NIE project team and our partners. We now have one completely integrated dispatch and control function which gives us access to more real-time information, enabling us to handle faults on the electricity network more efficiently, and provide better information to customers."
Ken Geisler, CES Founder and Vice Chairman, made a special trip from the US to Northern Ireland to present the "Go Live" award to the NIE team. At the presentation he said: "I'm delighted to be able to personally present this `Go Live' award to the Northern Ireland Electricity project team. We awarded this accolade to NIE to recognize the enthusiasm and commitment the company has shown in implementing these advanced systems, and delivering to its customers one of the most advanced electricity network management systems anywhere in the world. CES has supplied similar solutions to power companies across the US and Europe, but it is clear that NIE is a success story."
Graham added: "A rural network, such as we have in Northern Ireland, is always going to be vulnerable to storm damage and we have to be prepared to manage that when it happens. These new systems will help us significantly in that task."
Issued by Viridian Group PLC Corporate Communications, on behalf of Northern Ireland Electricity, Tel: 0044 +2890 689309
CES International contact: Don McDonnell, 770-680-2617, don.mcdonnell@ces.com.
Notes to editors:
Northern Ireland Electricity
-- NIE was privatized in 1992 and is the largest company in Viridian Group PLC. It is responsible for the regulated procurement, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity in Northern Ireland.
-- NIE (and NIE Powerteam) employs 1,300 full-time staff and has 716,000 customers.
-- NIE manages 55,000 km (35,000 miles) of overhead lines and cable, 31,000 km (19,000 miles) of which is overhead line, mainly in rural areas.