What about an energy-efficiency survey?

Rate increase by 15%, little investments in renewable energy, and essentially no encouragement of energy-efficiency, that's where Santee Cooper tops the charts. Santee Cooper surveyed its customers covering small basic utility qualities: power quality and reliability, price, billing and payment, corporate citizenship, communications, and lastly, customer service. Note, none of these concern energy-efficiency. Of course Santee Cooper will receive positive ratings if it's energy is cheap. It's common sense.

Columbia Regional Business Report
Santee Cooper tops charts in customer satisfaction poll
Staff Report
July 16, 2009

Santee Cooper topped the charts in a customer satisfaction ranking released today by J.D. Power and Associates. The state-owned utility was No. 1 among midsized utilities in the South, and it also received the highest score in the nation among all utilities studied.

“Despite unprecedented economic and regulatory challenges in the electric power industry, Santee Cooper has steadfastly remained focused on providing excellent customer service,” said Santee Cooper President and CEO Lonnie Carter said in a statement.

Santee Cooper is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary.

This is the second year that J.D. Power and Associates has released rankings for mid-sized utilities. The study measured six key factors:

• Power quality and reliability


• Price


• Billing and payment


• Corporate citizenship


• Communications


• Customer service

Customers gave Santee Cooper the highest score in the South midsized segment on price and communications.

“These study results demonstrate the positive impressions our customers have of Santee Cooper,” said Zack Dusenbury, Santee Cooper vice president of retail operations.

“I am particularly gratified and proud of retail operations and the employees who do what it takes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to maintain excellent customer satisfaction.”

According to J.D. Power and Associates, electric utility companies as a whole have improved power reliability and enhanced communications with their customers, especially when outages occur. This investment in communication technologies and processes is key to the industry’s overall improvement.

J.D. Power and Associates surveyed 79,552 customers online from July 2008 to May 2009, encompassing 121 utilities serving 92.4 million customers.

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