The future of JEA includes a greater focus on customer service, no rate increases in the foreseeable future and no construction of new electric generating or water treatment plants.
Those were some of the remarks made Monday to the Rotary Club of Jacksonville by Paul McElroy, JEA managing director and CEO.
McElroy has held the local public utility's top post since October. He previously served as JEA's chief financial officer and vice president of financial services.
He said that from 1998-2008 the utility focused on construction, which led to $4 billion in debt. From 2005-11, the utility focused on stabilizing its financial posture and retiring the bonds it issued.
Now it's time to turn attention from inward issues to outward issues, he said.
"We lost the relationship with our customers. We are moving forward on customers and community. We'll become more competitive while preserving our operating excellence. With our customers' loyalty, that can be done," McElroy said.
"The world has changed when it comes to service delivery and interfacing with our customers. Customer satisfaction will be our primary measure of success," he said.
New products to be marketed this year include a way to track electric and water consumption on a daily basis, a method of "level billing" to allow customers to pay projected annual utility bills in 12 equal installments and prepaid electric meters.
McElroy said the prepaid meters will allow customers to purchase electricity before they use it and later add to their balance in $10 increments after being notified by text message or email that their account is nearing a zero balance.
"We think we'll have 10,000 customers on prepaid meters by the end of the year and eventually, 30,000 customers," said McElroy.
He said JEA has no plans to build additional power generating facilities until at least 2022, based on the latest consumption projections. JEA will begin purchasing nuclear power from a facility in Georgia by 2018, he said.
Asked about the Presidents' Day weekend cyberattack that crippled JEA's customer website, McElroy said the source of the attack still has not been identified, but the investigation is continuing.
McElroy shared some statistics with his audience.
JEA is the seventh-largest public utility in America and has the second-largest water utility in Florida. With 1,250 in operation, JEA has more sewer pump stations than any other utility in the country.
He said JEA has reduced its discharge of nitrogen into the St. Johns River by more than 50 percent in the past 10 years and the utility generates 50 percent less carbon emissions than it did three years ago.
"We are in a really good spot," said McElroy.
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