Con Ed drops, Central Hudson steady in ratings

Con Edison lost ground in a customer-satisfaction survey of utilities that was released last month by J.D. Power and Associates, the marketing research firm based in Westlake, Calif. Central Hudson Gas and Electric held steady. The two supply most of the region”™s power.

Con Edison was rated second from the bottom among utilities based in the East. The utility scored 603 on a 1,000-point scale, 55 points below its score in 2006 and well below the highest ranking utility in the region, PPL Electric Utilities, which had a score of 710. The average customer satisfaction score in the category for large utilities nationwide was 661.

Titled the 2007 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study, the survey, which is in its ninth year, is based on interviews with thousands of customers across the nation. Three other regions ”“ South, West, and Midwest ”“ are also tracked, as well as medium-sized utilities, which are in a separate category. Overall customer satisfaction is based on the quality and reliability of power, price and value, company image, communications, billing and payment, and customer service.

Jeff Conklin, senior director at J.D. Power, said a significant decline in satisfaction levels occurred in last year”™s survey, in response to higher energy prices, outages in many parts of the country and less-reliable service. This year, satisfaction was flat or continued to drop slightly.

“More customers are less satisfied today than they were two or three years ago,” he said. “Prices have gone up from 7 (percent) to 10 percent each year in the past three years.”

In Con Ed”™s case, an outage in Queens last year due to a failure in the utility”™s main feeder, along with a storm in Westchester that caused outages, were factors in its ratings decline. Con Ed customers also pay among the highest prices in the nation, although other utilities around the county are catching up, said Conklin.

Central Hudson, which serves the Hudson Valley, rated about the same as last year in the separate category for medium-sized utilities, with a score of 661. That was just slightly below the average score in the category of 676. The highest-rated utility in the category was Omaha Public Power District at 781.

Conklin said J.D. Power also asked participants if their utility offered alternative price plans. Interestingly, those who”™ve chosen green plans ”“ power obtained from wind or other renewable source of energy ”“ were the most satisfied, even though the plans usually cost more, he said. Although green product pricing comprised less than 1 percent of the total plans offered, the number of customers doubled in the last year. The most popular alternative pricing plan is time of use, in which customers tie their purchase of electricity to off-peak periods when the price is cheaper, said Conklin.