Georgia electric cooperatives among the nation’s best in customer satisfaction

TUCKER, Ga. – Georgia electric cooperatives garnered the top four spots and the 11th in the list of the 25 highest-ranking electric cooperatives in the nation in the 2022 J.D. Power residential customer-satisfaction survey released Wednesday.

Topping the list is Sawnee Electric Membership Cooperative, followed by Jackson EMC, GreyStone Power and Cobb EMC. Walton EMC came in 11th out of 25 of the largest electric co-ops whose consumer owners were surveyed about their satisfaction with their electricity provider.

The average score for customers of the electric cooperatives nationally was 767 on a 1,000-point scale, which was higher than the average level for investor-owned electric companies. The average in the South for large investor-owned utilities was 751.

“These results show how the people who get their electricity from locally owned and controlled cooperatives say they are pleased with the service they receive,” said Dennis Chastain, president and chief executive officer of Georgia EMC, the trade association for that state’s electric cooperatives. “It’s gratifying to see that Georgia’s electric cooperatives stand as the best of the best in the service they offer.”

Power’s 2022 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 102,879 online interviews conducted from January 2022 through November 2022 among residential customers of the 145 largest electric utility brands across the United States, which represent more than 105 million households.

The same five Georgia cooperatives also ranked in the top 12 in last year’s survey, with Walton EMC coming in second place nationally then.

The survey measures residential customer satisfaction with large and midsize electric utility companies in six areas: power quality and reliability, price, billing and payment, communications, corporate citizenship and customer care. Sawnee EMC achieved the highest scores among cooperatives in power quality and reliability, price and in customer care.

In the 2022 survey, Cumming-based Sawnee EMC topped the list with 809 points. It serves more than 187,000 meters in Cherokee, Dawson, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall and Lumpkin counties.

Next was Jackson EMC with 799 points. Located in Jefferson, it serves nearly 250,000 meters in Clarke, Banks, Barrow, Franklin, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison and Oglethorpe counties.

GreyStone Power of Hiram earned 796 points. Its more than 140,000 meters are in Bartow, Carroll, Cobb, Coweta, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton and Paulding counties.

With 792 points, Cobb EMC is based in Marietta and powers more than 211,000 meters in Bartow, Cherokee, Cobb, Fulton and Paulding counties.

Walton EMC’s 780 points come in well above the national average. With headquarters in Monroe, it serves more than 133,000 meters in Barrow, Clarke, DeKalb, Greene, Gwinnett, Morgan, Newton, Oconee, Rockdale and Walton counties.

Georgia EMC is the statewide trade association representing the state’s 41 EMCs, Oglethorpe Power Corp., Georgia Transmission Corp. and Georgia System Operations Corp. Collectively, Georgia’s customer-owned EMCs provide electricity and related services to approximately 4.4 million people, nearly half of Georgia’s population, across 73 percent of the state’s land area. To learn more, visit www.georgiaemc.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Contact:
Walter Jones
walter.jones@georgiaemc.com
(770) 865-8593