San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
CPS plunges in customer survey; such dissatisfaction ‘hard to ignore’
A new nationwide survey found CPS Energy’s customer satisfaction score continuing to nosedive even as other municipal utilities have seen improvements.
According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index report released Tuesday, ratepayers’ assessment of the San Antonio utility fell 14 percent between 2021 and 2022. In the same period, overall satisfaction with energy utilities across the nation crept up slightly.
“CPS Energy’s 14 percent recession year over year is hard to ignore,” ACSI Managing Director David VanAmburg said in a statement. “Clearly, the utility’s satisfaction shows long-lasting damage stemming from last year’s devastating winter storm and its aftermath.”
The storm in February 2021 led to massive power outages in San Antonio and beyond.
While CPS Energy took a tumble, other smaller municipal energy utilities crept upward in the rankings.
The interview-based survey found that customer satisfaction with utilities nationwide had increased by 0.3 percent through the end of 2021, to a score of 72.2 out of 100. CPS Energy customer satisfaction score dropped to 63 in 2021 from 73 in the year after the stormrelated outages.
Despite also suffering outages during last year’s deep freeze, other energy providers in Texas saw gains in satisfaction scores. Houston-based CenterPoint Energy improved 3 percent to a
state-best 78. Atmos Energy, headquartered in Dallas, followed with a score of 73.
At the same time, customer satisfaction with other municipal energy utilities across the U.S. increased 2.8 percent to a score of 73 as a group. After slipping in 2020, industry leader Salt River Project in Tempe, Ariz., gained 1 percent to a score of 76 in 2021.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power held steady at 68. CPS fell to the bottom of the industry with its plunge to 63.
ACSI’s survey is just the latest to show declining satisfaction. In December, CPS finished last in a J.D. Power customer satisfaction poll of residential customer satisfaction among regional utilities. The utility’s own internal
surveys have confirmed such sentiment.
The low customer satisfaction ratings come as CPS recently has been facing a host of troubles.
It’s fighting in Bexar County District Court over $587 million of about $1 billion in charges it racked up last February, when it paid exorbitant prices for electricity and gas as it struggled to keep its system operating.
To recover the amount CPS has paid suppliers so far, San Antonio ratepayers will be paying about $1.26 more on their monthly bills for the next 25 years. And that monthly charge is likely to increase depending on how its other lawsuits are resolved.
In January, City Council approved a smaller rate increase than CPS had originally sought. It said the hike is also needed to keep up with maintenance, expand service as the city grows, and work toward more sustainable and cleaner sources of power.
Employees have been streaming out of the utility, either retiring or taking better-paying jobs elsewhere. Some of the utility’s embattled leadership has also resigned.
The annual ACSI utilities survey is based on interviews with more than 22,000 residential customers between Jan. 11 and Dec. 21, 2021. Municipal energy utilities were graded on a number of metrics, including their ability to provide reliable electric service after an outage and the ease with which customers can understand their bills.
In partnership with the University of Michigan, ACSI surveys for 25 years have been measuring and analyzing customer satisfaction for more than 400 companies in 47 industries and 10 economic sectors, including various services of federal and local government agencies.