Austin’s municipal utility, Austin Energy, ranks highest among all midsize electric utility providers in the Southern region of the country, according to a customer study released by J.D. Power and Associates.
The 2010 Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study is based on interviews with representatives of more than 16,000 U.S. businesses that spend between $500 and $50,000 a month on electricity.
Each utility is rated on a 1,000-point scale. In the study’s Southern region, Austin Energy earned the high score of 682 for midsize electric utilities, as did CPS Energy of San Antonio.
Austin Energy serves nearly 1 million people in an area covering 437 square miles.
Within each geographic region included in the study, utility providers are classified into one of two segments: large (serving 85,000 or more business customers) and midsize (serving between 29,000 and 84,999 business customers).
More than 90 utility brands serving more than 11.7 million business customers are included in the nationwide study.
Overall customer satisfaction is measured by examining six factors: power quality and reliability; billing and payment; corporate citizenship; price; communications; and customer service.
Comments
John, as a consumer of Austin Energy's electricity, I prefer it be called what it is, a municipal utility monopoly. Austin Energy, the Austin City Council and the Austin Board of REALTORS worked with "stakeholders" on a Task Force to burden Austin homeowners with the Energy Conservation Audit Disclosure. If you own a home older than 10 years old you must have an energy audit at the point-of-sale. However, if you own a condominium, a home less than 10 years old, or mobilehome, you can use all the electricity you want! This ECAD ordinance is busywork for energy auditors. The free market and homeowners should decide if energy efficiency upgrades should be performed, not micromanaging, carbon-hysterical, control-freaks who dictate to Austinites from City Council. Get Austin City Council government out of the electricity monoploy. By the way, non-compliance is a Class C misdemeanor and up to a $2000 fine. Mandatory retrofits are on their way in a few years Austinites.
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