Piedmont Natural Gas Receives South Carolina OSHA Award

Company's utility operations in Anderson receive Safety and Health Recognition Program (SHARP) designation, first ever by a natural gas utility in South Carolina

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Piedmont Natural Gas

May 13, 2011, 11:53 ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) today announced that its Anderson, South Carolina utility operations have been awarded the Safety and Health Recognition Program (SHARP) designation by the South Carolina OSHA. The designation for Piedmont's Anderson district is the first ever for any natural gas utility in the state of South Carolina.

In order to qualify for the designation, a company or location must go through a rigorous application and on-site review process that demonstrates management's commitment to a system for hazard identification, correction, and control; provides employees with extensive safety and health training; assures employee participation in safety and health programs; and, demonstrates positive results through a total injury or illness incident rate and a total lost workday incident rate that is below the state average for the applicant's industry for each of the last three years.

Commenting on the award, Michael H. Yount, Piedmont's senior vice president of utility operations said, "We are truly honored to receive the South Carolina OSHA's SHARP Award designation for our Anderson operations. It is a tribute to our employees there for their commitment to working safe for themselves, their teammates, and for our customers. This award is special, too, because it reflects Piedmont's long-standing commitment to a culture of safety that we seek to instill in all our employees through continuous improvement, training and development, and collaboration and communication."

Today's announcement was shared with Piedmont employees attending the Company's annual Safety Summit being held this year in Greenville, South Carolina. Jane Lewis-Raymond, Piedmont's general counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary remarked, "How appropriate it is that Piedmont receives this award at this particular time. Our annual Safety Summit is the natural culmination of each year's safety effort that combines employee training and education, monthly safety meetings at all of our districts and our Corporate Office, and annual reviews of our safety processes, policies, and procedures. The fact that this award is the first ever given to a natural gas utility in South Carolina is a real testament to our commitment to safety in and out of the workplace."

About Piedmont Natural Gas

Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) is an energy services company primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to more than one million residential, commercial and industrial utility customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including 52,000 customers served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, interstate natural gas storage and intrastate natural gas transportation. More information about Piedmont Natural Gas is available on the internet at http://www.piedmontng.com.

SOURCE Piedmont Natural Gas