My last novel was set locally. I used a lot of abbreviations, mainly to shorten the names of public utility companies. Because I’m used to seeing the abbreviations in the paper, and on my electric bill, I thought nothing of the abbreviations.

Then a friend who lives in Thailand read the book and said it was difficult for him to keep them straight. I edited my text, essentially following your advice here, except I didn’t put the abbreviations in parentheses. A reader should be able to keep abbreviations straight if the author demonstrates what has been shortened first. Then, if there’s been a decent length of text between abbreviations, I’ll spell it out for them again, in case they’ve forgotten.