And The J.D. Power Results Are...

... Memphis Light, Gas and Water is one of the most improved utilities in the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study(SM) that was released Thursday.

Compared to 2009, MLGW's score jumped to 599 points, an increase of 36 points. (We doubled checked.) It's the third consecutive year that MLGW has posted a double-digit point increase in the survey, which is specific to electric utilities and their residential customers.

MLGW scored 563 in 2009, 548 in 2008, and 536 in 2007. The study measures customer satisfaction with electric utility companies by examining six key factors: power quality and reliability; price; billing and payment; corporate citizenship; communications; and customer service.

While we've come a long way, we still have a long way to go. We're moving in the right direction

Here's what we've done to improve customer satisfaction since the 2009 survey:

Recent MLGW Initiatives and Improvements
• MLGW had no rate increases in 2010.

• Launched an initiative to restore power to cut-off customers during winter (Partnered with the city and county to restore previously cut-off customers during the cold spell in early January)

• Launched an initiative to restore power to cut-off customers in the summer.(When heat index moratorium is in effect, previously cut-off customers can have their services restored by paying $225 and entering a five-month deferred billing
program)

• Enabled Visa and MasterCard pay options with a new payment system. (In addition to Discover, customers have more payment options.)

• Launched In-Home Energy Efficiency program which provides rebates to homeowners for making certain types of home improvements.

• Partnered with the City of Memphis on a Home Energy Efficiency Grant (HEEG)program. These grants will provide $5 million in energy-efficiency improvements to hundreds of MLGW customers.

• Maintained strong financial ratings from Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s (Fitch Ratings upgraded MLGW bonds twice to their highest ratings marks, and MLGW is the only retail level utility with a AAA bond rating)

• MLGW has also worked to improve reliability by targeting areas with frequent or long outages (those that last 10 hours or more).

• MLGW has reduced the percentage of customers experiencing outages of 10 hours or more from 20 percent to about five percent.

• MLGW also targeted areas where frequent outages occurred and made improvements that include animal mitigation, tree trimming, or even redesigning the system (recent examples of system redesign/improvements include areas such as Lamar & South Parkway, Scenic Hills, and the U of M area).

• MLGW spent $2 million to replace faulty underground cable in the last year and another $1.5 million in system improvements that serve critical facilities.

• Prepared to launch a three-year Smart Grid Demo with 1,000 customers in the fall. This may expand to an additional 900 customers.

• Heavy involvement and employee volunteerism in community events (i.e. United Way, Special Olympics, LifeBlood, Food Bank, HeartWalk, Diabetes Association, etc.)

• Increased communications with Spanish-speaking customers. (Increased Spanish language MLGW communications; appearances on Spanish radio and television programs, conducted EnergySmart energy education workshops in Spanish)

• Launched text messaging service to notify customers about due dates and pending
cut-offs.

• Increased outreach through social media (MLGW has an active presence on FaceBook, Twitter and MLGW’s blog).

• Increased efforts to repair streetlight outages by issuing “streetlight challenge” to encourage customers to report these outages.

• Implemented Smallest User conservation contest between the Cooper Young and Evergreen neighborhoods to see which one can lower its overall usage the most in
a year.