April 2, 2025
Escalent recognizes 40 utilities as Easiest To Do Business With
A new Cogent Syndicated report from Escalent reveals that utilities are finally gaining ground in the struggle to make it easy for their customers to do business with them. For the first time since 2021, the study’s first-quarter Customer Effort Score has improved, increasing by 10 points year-over-year to 723 (on a 1,000-point scale).
Consumers rate utilities on 20 attributes, which together form the Customer Effort Score, a measure of how easy it is to do business with a utility.
Since early 2022, utilities have struggled to recover from scoring declines as customers seeking bill assistance faced challenges in understanding their bills and finding cost-saving offerings.
Forty utilities lead the 2025 scoring comeback, standing out as being “easiest to do business with” among 140 of the largest utility companies in the US. These and other findings are from the 2025 Cogent Syndicated Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Residential study by Escalent, a top data analytics and advisory firm with extensive energy, utility and brand experience.
Significant improvements in customers’ ease-of-use perceptions of voluntary utility offerings—particularly alternative power and fuel options such as rooftop solar, EV charger incentives and backup power generation, home service/protection programs, and rate options—have driven the comeback.
“As utilities expand their program portfolio—or simply do a better job of letting customers know about available programs—making those programs easy to use has proven to be a challenge for some,” said Suzanne Haggerty, director of syndicated research with the Energy team at Escalent. “Customers expect a streamlined user experience and the utilities recognized as Easiest to Do Business With this year are making great strides toward delivering that experience.”
Escalent is pleased to name these 40 utilities as our 2025 Easiest To Do Business With.
| 2025 Easiest Utilities To Do Business With* | |
| AEP Ohio | Louisville Gas & Electric |
| Atmos Energy – South | Mississippi Power |
| Avista | New Jersey Natural Gas |
| BGE | NIPSCO |
| Black Hills Energy – Midwest | NorthWestern Energy |
| Cascade Natural Gas | OPPD |
| CenterPoint Energy – Midwest | OUC |
| Chattanooga Gas Company | PECO |
| Citizens Energy | Peoples |
| Columbia Gas – East | PPL Electric Utilities |
| Columbia Gas – South | PSE&G |
| ComEd | Puget Sound Energy |
| Con Edison | Salt River Project |
| Dominion Energy South Carolina | South Jersey Gas Company |
| Elizabethtown Gas | Spire Missouri – East |
| Enbridge Gas North Carolina | Spire Missouri – West |
| Entergy Arkansas | TECO Peoples Gas |
| Entergy Mississippi | TECO Tampa Electric |
| Florida City Gas Company | Virginia Natural Gas |
| Georgia Power | Washington Gas |
* Utilities designated as Easiest To Do Business With are selected based on having Customer Effort Scores in the top decile of the industry, the top score within their respective benchmark segment or within 20 points of the top benchmark segment score and above the industry average.
The following tables reflect regional peer benchmark Engaged Customer Relationship scores among the 140 utilities surveyed.
| East Region Utilities Customer Effort Performance | ||
| Utility brand name | Service provided | Customer Effort Score |
| Con Edison | Combination | 741 |
| PECO | Combination | 741 |
| PSE&G | Combination | 736 |
| BGE | Combination | 724 |
| National Grid | Combination | 718 |
| Delmarva Power | Combination | 717 |
| Eversource | Combination | 696 |
| NYSEG | Combination | 652 |
| RG&E | Combination | 639 |
| PPL Electric Utilities | Electric | 736 |
| Green Mountain Power | Electric | 720 |
| Duquesne Light Company | Electric | 719 |
| Pepco | Electric | 713 |
| Met-Ed | Electric | 700 |
| West Penn Power | Electric | 700 |
| Penn Power | Electric | 699 |
| Jersey Central Power & Light | Electric | 694 |
| Penelec | Electric | 694 |
| PSE&G Long Island | Electric | 689 |
| Mon Power | Electric | 688 |
| Potomac Edison | Electric | 688 |
| Appalachian Power | Electric | 674 |
| Atlantic City Electric | Electric | 670 |
| Central Maine Power | Electric | 652 |
| Columbia Gas – East | Natural Gas | 760 |
| Elizabethtown Gas | Natural Gas | 757 |
| New Jersey Natural Gas | Natural Gas | 750 |
| Washington Gas | Natural Gas | 745 |
| Peoples | Natural Gas | 744 |
| South Jersey Gas Company | Natural Gas | 742 |
| UGI Utilities | Natural Gas | 736 |
| National Fuel Gas | Natural Gas | 731 |
| Philadelphia Gas Works | Natural Gas | 717 |
| Midwest Region Utilities Customer Effort Performance | ||
| Utility brand name | Service provided | Customer Effort Score |
| NIPSCO | Combination | 770 |
| Black Hills Energy – Midwest | Combination | 758 |
| Xcel Energy – Midwest | Combination | 749 |
| Wisconsin Public Service | Combination | 745 |
| MidAmerican Energy | Combination | 743 |
| Montana-Dakota Utilities | Combination | 734 |
| Consumers Energy | Combination | 731 |
| Duke Energy Midwest | Combination | 717 |
| DTE Energy | Combination | 717 |
| Ameren Illinois | Combination | 716 |
| We Energies | Combination | 714 |
| Alliant Energy | Combination | 713 |
| CenterPoint Energy – Indiana | Combination | 551 |
| ComEd | Electric | 747 |
| OPPD | Electric | 740 |
| AEP Ohio | Electric | 732 |
| Ameren Missouri | Electric | 718 |
| Indiana Michigan Power | Electric | 718 |
| AES Indiana | Electric | 713 |
| Ohio Edison | Electric | 709 |
| Evergy | Electric | 706 |
| The Illuminating Company | Electric | 698 |
| Toledo Edison | Electric | 688 |
| AES Ohio | Electric | 683 |
| CenterPoint Energy – Midwest | Natural Gas | 756 |
| Spire Missouri – West | Natural Gas | 751 |
| Spire Missouri – East | Natural Gas | 746 |
| Citizens Energy | Natural Gas | 741 |
| Peoples Gas | Natural Gas | 727 |
| Atmos Energy – Midwest | Natural Gas | 727 |
| Nicor Gas | Natural Gas | 726 |
| Columbia Gas of Ohio | Natural Gas | 726 |
| Kansas Gas Service | Natural Gas | 717 |
| Enbridge Gas Ohio | Natural Gas | 710 |
| South Region Utilities Customer Effort Performance | ||
| Utility brand name | Service provided | Customer Effort Score |
| Dominion Energy South Carolina | Combination | 740 |
| Louisville Gas & Electric | Combination | 733 |
| CPS Energy | Combination | 713 |
| MLGW | Combination | 668 |
| Georgia Power | Electric | 774 |
| Mississippi Power | Electric | 773 |
| OUC | Electric | 771 |
| TECO Tampa Electric | Electric | 767 |
| Entergy Mississippi | Electric | 760 |
| Entergy Arkansas | Electric | 758 |
| Duke Energy Progress | Electric | 749 |
| Alabama Power | Electric | 745 |
| Southwestern Electric Power Company | Electric | 741 |
| Florida Power & Light | Electric | 741 |
| Duke Energy Florida | Electric | 731 |
| Public Service Company of Oklahoma | Electric | 731 |
| Xcel Energy – South | Electric | 729 |
| Nashville Electric Service | Electric | 722 |
| Entergy Texas | Electric | 720 |
| Entergy Louisiana | Electric | 716 |
| Dominion Energy Virginia | Electric | 712 |
| OG&E | Electric | 711 |
| Austin Energy | Electric | 710 |
| Duke Energy Carolinas | Electric | 709 |
| JEA | Electric | 709 |
| Entergy New Orleans | Electric | 703 |
| Kentucky Utilities | Electric | 701 |
| El Paso Electric | Electric | 701 |
| FPL Northwest FL | Electric | 664 |
| Kentucky Power | Electric | 637 |
| Atmos Energy – South | Natural Gas | 796 |
| Chattanooga Gas Company | Natural Gas | 786 |
| Columbia Gas – South | Natural Gas | 780 |
| Virginia Natural Gas | Natural Gas | 776 |
| Florida City Gas Company | Natural Gas | 767 |
| TECO Peoples Gas | Natural Gas | 765 |
| Enbridge Gas North Carolina | Natural Gas | 761 |
| Piedmont Natural Gas | Natural Gas | 759 |
| CenterPoint Energy – South | Natural Gas | 754 |
| Texas Gas Service | Natural Gas | 747 |
| Oklahoma Natural Gas | Natural Gas | 735 |
| Spire Alabama | Natural Gas | 728 |
| West Region Utilities Customer Effort Performance | ||
| Utility brand name | Service provided | Customer Effort Score |
| Puget Sound Energy | Combination | 746 |
| Avista | Combination | 736 |
| NorthWestern Energy | Combination | 727 |
| Colorado Springs Utilities | Combination | 707 |
| Black Hills Energy – West | Combination | 706 |
| Xcel Energy Colorado | Combination | 698 |
| PG&E | Combination | 680 |
| SDG&E | Combination | 592 |
| Salt River Project | Electric | 788 |
| LADWP | Electric | 745 |
| SMUD | Electric | 744 |
| APS | Electric | 740 |
| PNM | Electric | 740 |
| Seattle City Light | Electric | 739 |
| Snohomish County PUD | Electric | 736 |
| Tucson Electric Power | Electric | 726 |
| Rocky Mountain Power | Electric | 723 |
| Idaho Power | Electric | 723 |
| Pacific Power | Electric | 704 |
| Southern California Edison | Electric | 700 |
| Portland General Electric | Electric | 698 |
| NV Energy | Electric | 660 |
| Cascade Natural Gas | Natural Gas | 798 |
| SoCalGas | Natural Gas | 759 |
| Intermountain Gas Company | Natural Gas | 749 |
| Southwest Gas | Natural Gas | 748 |
| New Mexico Gas Company | Natural Gas | 738 |
| NW Natural | Natural Gas | 723 |
| Enbridge Gas West | Natural Gas | 707 |
Click below for more information on the full report.
About the Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Residential Study
Escalent conducted surveys among 59,793 residential electric, natural gas and combination utility customers of the 140 largest US utility companies (based on residential customer counts). The sample design uses a combination of quotas and weighting based on US census data to ensure a demographically balanced sample of each evaluated utility’s customers based on age, gender, income, race and ethnicity. Utilities within the same region and of the same type (e.g., electric-only providers) are given equal weight to balance the influence of each utility’s customers on survey results. Escalent will supply the exact wording of any survey question upon request.
