Rising Costs and Widespread Power Outages Strain Business Customer Satisfaction with Electric Utilities, J.D. Power Finds

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TROY, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 12, 2025--

With the average price per kilowatt hour for commercial customers rising 6.7% and the frequency and severity of power outages increasing in 2025, business customer satisfaction with the nation’s electric utilities is strained. According to the J.D. Power 2025 Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study SM, released today, more businesses than ever are researching new rate plans to address their electric utility challenges.

"Business customers are actively shopping new rate plans, looking for ways to manage rising electricity costs and deal with growing reliability issues,” said Ramah Vaughn, director of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power. "Utilities that recognize this trend and take proactive steps to engage with their business customers and help them lower costs, as well as respond more quickly to power outages and interruptions, are able to offset the negative effects of these issues on overall customer satisfaction."

Following are some key findings of the 2025 study:

• More business customers shopping for new rate plans: More than half (53%) of commercial electric utility customers selected a new rate plan in 2025, up from 43% in 2024. The most common type selected is a standard utility rate plan (39%), followed by specialty rate plans (20%) and real-time rate plans (19%). Specialty rate plans, interruptible rate plans, green-based rate plans and time-based rate plans have seen the sharpest interest among business customers in the past four years.
• Outages become more serious, especially in the South: Nationwide, 74% of business customers experienced some type of power outage in 2025, up from 73% in 2024. The severity of those outages has increased significantly, with the average length of the longest outage for businesses in the Southern region reaching 22 hours. One-fourth (25%) of businesses experienced financial losses due to a power outage in 2025.
• Great communication offsets negative effects of outage: While power outages generally have a negative effect on business customer satisfaction with their electric utility, utilities that communicate proactively throughout an outage are able to counter that negative sentiment. The average safety and reliability satisfaction score among businesses that receive five or more points of contact during an outage event is 699 (on a 1,000-point scale), which is 210 points higher than those who receive no outage information from their electric utility.

Study Rankings

Within each of the four U.S. geographic regions included in the study, utility providers are classified into one of two segments: large (serving 90,000 or more business customers) and midsize (serving 50,000-89,999 business customers).

The following utilities rank highest in business customer satisfaction in their respective region:

• East Large: PSEG Long Island
• East Midsize: Pepco (for a second consecutive year)
• Midwest Large: MidAmerican Energy (for a third consecutive year)
• Midwest Midsize: Kentucky Utilities (for a second consecutive year)
• South Large: Georgia Power (for a second consecutive year)
• South Midsize: Entergy Texas (for a second consecutive year)
• West Large: SRP
• West Midsize: Seattle City Light (for a fourth consecutive year)

See the rank chart for each segment at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2025150.

The Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study was redesigned for 2025, thus overall satisfaction scores are not comparable with previous-year studies. The study, now in its 27 th year, measures satisfaction among business customers of 80 targeted U.S. electric utilities, each of which serves more than 50,000 business customers. In aggregate, these utilities provide electricity to more than 12 million customers.

Overall satisfaction is examined across eight dimensions (listed in order of importance): total monthly cost; trust; safety & reliability; ease of doing business; people; information provided; problem resolution; and digital channels. The 2025 study is based on responses from 18,132 online interviews of business customers in decision-making roles related to their utility company. The study was fielded from February through October 2025.

For more information about the U.S. Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/utilities/electric-utility-business-customer-satisfaction-study.

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

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251112969522/en/

CONTACT: Media Relations Contacts

Joe LaMuraglia, J.D. Power; East Coast; 714-621-6224;[email protected]

John Roderick; East Coast; 631-584-2200;[email protected]

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA MICHIGAN

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DATA ANALYTICS UTILITIES TECHNOLOGY ENERGY SOFTWARE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

SOURCE: J.D. Power

Copyright Business Wire 2025.

PUB: 11/12/2025 08:00 AM/DISC: 11/12/2025 08:01 AM

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