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Utilities Struggle to Build Appealing Consumer Brands as Rates Continue to Rise, J.D. Power Finds

via Business Wire

Reputation-Building Initiatives Fail to Connect with Utility Customers

With the average monthly residential electric utility bill now reaching $190 (a 6% increase since 2024), and the average monthly residential gas bill reaching $113 (a 7% increase since 2024), utility customers are understandably concerned about affordability. Against that backdrop, utilities are struggling to build their reputations and brands with perceptions of affordability, energy-innovation leadership and community stewardship largely missing the mark.

That’s the major takeaway from two studies that evaluate the overall brand appeal of electric and gas utilities in the United States: the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Electric Utility Brand Appeal Index StudySM and the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Gas Utility Brand Appeal Index Study,SM both released today.

“Overall utility brand appeal is down this year, driven largely by declines in reputation attributes,” said Chris Oberle, managing director of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power. “While customers trust their electric and gas utilities to deliver reliable service, they do not feel like their utilities are going the extra mile to help them by keeping costs down, delivering personalized communications, demonstrating commitment to the environment or focusing on innovation. Brand appeal is critical to influencing customer behaviors that lead to increased usage of programs and options, higher levels of customer satisfaction, support for rate increases and positive market sentiment.”

Following are some of the key findings of the 2025 studies:

  • Brand appeal declines: Overall brand appeal scores decline 1 point to 694 (on a 1,000-point scale) for electric utilities and 3 points to 714 for gas utilities, driven largely by declines in company reputation. Attributes such as customer focus, dedication to community and environmental stewardship, as well as industry innovation leadership, also decline significantly in both 2025 studies.
  • Brand appeal connected to customer satisfaction and support for rate increases: Average overall satisfaction among customers who indicate positive brand appeal for their utility is 399 points higher than among those who indicate negative brand appeal. Utilities with appealing brands also enjoy higher customer loyalty, an increase in support for rate increases and a significantly higher percentage of customers willing to advocate for the utility.
  • Utilities need to look beyond delivering the basics: The customer trust score for electric utilities is 724 and for gas utilities is 750—the highest-scoring factors in both studies. This suggests that customers trust their utilities to deliver reliable service, but simply providing reliable service is not enough to elevate overall brand perceptions. Utilities need to establish core value propositions to create a stronger brand impression with their customers.
  • Communications efforts fall flat: Utility customer communication efforts through paid advertising, digital communications, bill-based messaging and news media are failing to connect with customers. Overall communication intensity scores, which measure total volume and customer recall of communications across different media, have fallen sharply in 2025 for both electric and gas utilities.

Study Rankings

Highest-ranking electric utilities in brand appeal by region and category are as follows:

East: PSE&G (737) (for a second consecutive year)

Midwest: MidAmerican Energy (732)

South: EPB (747) (for a second consecutive year)

West: SRP (757)

Cooperatives: Delaware Electric Cooperative (763)

Highest-ranking gas utilities in brand appeal by region are as follows:

East: PSE&G (748) (for a second consecutive year)

Midwest: MidAmerican Energy (743) (for a second consecutive year)

South: Columbia Gas of Virginia (749) (for a second consecutive year)

West: Cascade Natural Gas (743)

See the rank chart for each region and category at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2025075.

The Electric Utility Brand Appeal Index Study and Gas Utility Brand Appeal Index Study, both now in their third year, analyze how well U.S. utilities relate to their customers and evaluate the specific actions that influence overall brand experience—including company reputation, marketing execution and customer trust—among 151 electric utilities and 84 gas utilities. The index applies to all U.S. electric and natural gas utilities profiled in the annual J.D. Power Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction StudySM and the J.D. Power Gas Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study.SM This year’s studies captured the responses of 155,079 utility customers and were fielded from July 2024 through May 2025.

For more information about the Utility Brand Appeal Index studies, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/utility-brand-appeal-index.

About J.D. Power

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 55 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies.

J.D. Power 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 J.D. Power and Advertising/Promotional Rules: www.jdpower.com/business/about-us/press-release-info

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