APOGEE Interactive Presents ACE Awards for Online Best Practices by Utilities.

ATLANTA -- APOGEE Interactive Inc., the pioneering leader in online solutions for the energy industry since 1994, presented its annual ACE awards -- APOGEE Customer Excellence - to 11 utilities for best practices in web-based customer service and energy efficiency programs.

The ACE awards presentation took place during APOGEE's 12th Annual Web Workshop, which drew more than a 100 utility professionals to the 3-day event in Atlanta last week. APOGEE hosts the users group meeting, workshop and Web boot camp each year to feature national speakers, provide a forum for utility peer exchange through panel presentations and introduce advances in APOGEE's products.

This year's workshop included headline presentations from J.D. Power and Associates on its 2006 utility customer satisfaction study; Chartwell Inc. on new benchmarks in utility web-based customer service; Usability Concepts, LLC on its recent comparative usability study of 15 major utility websites; and Ken Futch, nationally recognized motivational speaker and author of "Take Your Best Shot."

APOGEE established the ACE Awards to recognize Excellence in Customer Service, Best in Web Activity, Most Creative Marketing, Outstanding Conservation and Stewardship, and Web Innovation among its more than 200 utility clients. "Our website design and hosting work gives us a unique view into what utilities are doing for customers on the web, and our analytics software captures the results," said Susan Gilbert, president of APOGEE. "We can track real-time how many customers are performing self-service and what web pages are getting the most play," she added. "Our objective with the ACE awards is to recognize best practices and continue to help our clients increase customer satisfaction while reducing operating costs."

This year's winners for Excellence in Customer Service include LCEC (www.lcec.net) for a customized pool and spa feature on its online home energy calculator called "Calc-U-Saver", Central Georgia EMC for launching an automated energy bill analysis program online; and Roanoke Electric Cooperative (www.roanokeelectric.com) for rolling out five new customer friendly, self-service websites for its five operating companies this year.

Earning top honors for Best Web Activity was Newberry Electric Cooperative (www.nec.coop) for recording more web traffic by a factor of four than other utilities in the 12,000 to 15,000-member range.

Delta Montrose Electric Association (www.dmea.com) garnered the Most Creative Marketing award for its Home Energy Makeover Contest that granted $25,000 in energy efficiency improvements to the home most in need.

APOGEE's ACE awards for Outstanding Conservation and Stewardship went to Tacoma Power (www.ci.tacoma.wa.us/power) for its customized EnergyStar[TM] comparison feature in its online HomeEnergyCalculator[TM] from Apogee; and to Redding Electric Utility (www.reupower.com) for creative use of the online HomeEnergyCalculator in its school programs.

The final category of ACE Awards recognizes forward thinking energy professionals who consistently advance online applications and web tools to better serve their customers. Recipients of the ACE Innovation Award include: Derek Buras, senior analyst with Entergy (www.entergy.com); Amy Bryan, residential marketing director at Jackson EMC (www.jacksonemc.com); Jimmy Autry, senior vice president of member and community relations for Flint Energies (www.flintenergies.com); and Laurie Parker, communications specialist with Nashville Electric Service (www.nespower.com).

Founded in 1994, APOGEE Interactive (www.apogee.net) led the online interactive movement within the energy utility industry with the introduction of more than a dozen CD-Interactive energy efficiency training courses. The company soon extended its reach onto the Web with online courses, in-depth energy content and energy calculators for utility websites.

Today APOGEE offers a full suite of residential and commercial online energy content, energy-use calculators and analysis applications to enhance customer satisfaction and energy efficiency. APOGEE's customers comprise a wide range of investor-owned, municipal and cooperative utilities such as American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), Entergy (NYSE: ETR), FPL (NYSE: FPL), TVA, LCEC and Jackson EMC. The company also provides eLearning systems, call center programs and demand response platforms to utilities and their trade associations.