Photo: Public Domain
Press Release
Published March 17, 2021
For the fifth consecutive year, EPB has been ranked as the best midsize electric utility in the South by its residential customers, according to the J.D. Power 2020 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study.
“It’s quite an accomplishment to win in a normal year, but even more so during this pandemic year and for the 5th year in a row is something special,” said John Hazen, manager director of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power.
The J.D. Power Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study measures residential customer satisfaction with large and midsize electric utility companies in four US regions: East, Midwest, South and West. The study examines satisfaction across six factors: Power Quality and Reliability; Price; Billing and Payment; Communications; Corporate Citizenship; and Customer Care.
“Open and frequent communication about policies and assistance programs has proven to be key in maintaining high customer satisfaction, especially during the pandemic,” said Hazen. “These satisfaction scores are evidence that kindness and being a good corporate citizen during challenging times is worth all the effort and communication that goes with it.”
When the COVID-19 crisis and the April tornadoes hit that caused the most damage in EPB history, EPB suspended cutoffs, offered late payment forgiveness, waived charges and fees, worked out repayment plans, referred customers to assistance programs and supported community initiatives, by raising more than $500,000 for the United Way of Chattanooga Restore Hope Fund.
The EPB Fiber Optic Smart Grid also reduced or avoided 60,000,000 customer outage minutes.
“Everything we do is focused on serving our customers and our community as a whole,” said David Wade, president and CEO of EPB. “I am so proud of the hard work our employees have done in the face of so many challenges in 2020.”
The J.D. Power 2020 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 96,546 online interviews conducted from January through November 2020 among residential customers of the 143 largest electric utility brands across the United States, which represent more than 102 million households.
J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 50 years. The world’s leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies.
J.D. Power is headquartered in Troy, Mich., and has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more about the company’s business offerings, visit JDPower.com/business. The J.D. Power auto shopping tool can be found at JDPower.com.
About EPB
EPB serves the greater Chattanooga area by providing world-class energy and connectivity solutions as a means of promoting economic development and enhancing quality of life for our community.
We deliver electricity to more than 170,000 homes and businesses across our 600 square mile service area which includes most of Hamilton County as well as parts of surrounding counties in both Tennessee and Georgia.
In 2010, EPB Fiber Optics, which offers internet, TV, and telephone services, became the first provider in the United States to deliver up to 1 Gig (1,000 Mbps) internet speeds utilizing a community-wide fiber optic network which is accessible to every home and business in its service area.
In 2015, EPB became the first, and to date, only American ISP to make up to 10 Gig (10,000 Mbps) internet speeds accessible to all of its residential and commercial customers as a standard offer.
EPB has also utilized its community-wide fiber optic network to deploy the most advanced and highly automated smart grid power management system in the nation.
In recognition of EPB’s groundbreaking infrastructure, the Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are utilizing EPB’s smart grid as a national model for researching and developing best practices.
EPB is also the first major power distribution utility to earn the USGBC’s PEER certification for having a highly automated, modernized electric power grid.
EPB is an independent board of the City of Chattanooga which began serving customers in 1939. Visit EPB.com for more information.
