For the second time in less than a year, PPL Utilities has ranked as the top electric delivery company in the Eastern United States in a national, independent study of customer satisfaction.
J. D. Power and Associates and Navigant Consulting, Inc. announced on Thursday (4/13) the results of their first Electric Utility Mid-Sized Business Customer Satisfaction Study. In a repeat of the results from their 1999 study of residential customer satisfaction, PPL Utilities came out ahead of all other electric utilities in the East. The study ranked 13 utilities in the East.
PPL Utilities - a subsidiary of PPL Corp. (NYSE: PPL) - delivers electricity to 1.3 million homes and businesses in eastern and central Pennsylvania.
"The people from the PPL family of companies always have been dedicated to providing customer service that is among the best in the world," said William F. Hecht, PPL Corp. chairman, president and chief executive officer. "These tops-in-the-East rankings in electricity company customer satisfaction are a tribute to the commitment PPL people have to please our customers - a commitment that sets our company apart in this business."
And, Hecht noted, the PPL family of companies is exporting its customer service commitment to other countries as well. Through subsidiaries, the company now provides high-quality electricity delivery services to 3.5 million customers worldwide.
Western Power Distribution has earned the United Kingdom's coveted Charter Mark three times in succession, and won the utility category of the Daily Telegraph/Energis Customer Service Awards for 1999. PPL Global owns 51 percent of WPD, which delivers electricity to 1.4 million customers in southwest Britain.
PPL Global also is bringing a service-oriented approach to the Latin American market, where its Emel subsidiary serves 800,000 customers in Chile, Bolivia and El Salvador. PPL Global owns 95 percent of Emel. That company, based in Santiago, Chile, recently was named one of the 50 "high growth" companies among all industries in Latin America by a leading business magazine in that region.
"An important part of our business strategy is to operate excellent energy delivery businesses around the world," Hecht said. "The success of our energy delivery business helped contribute to the highest earnings per share in company history in 1999."
PPL Corp. adjusted earnings (excluding one-time items) were $2.35 per share in 1999, and the company has projected even higher earnings per share over the next two years, expecting that the figure in 2001 will be 60 percent higher than adjusted earnings per share in 1998.
The J. D. Power and Associates and Navigant Consulting study looked at the 44 largest investor-owned electric utilities. They asked business customers to rate their electric utility on various attributes of service.
PPL Utilities was credited with strengths in the key attributes of price and value, power quality and reliability, and billing and payment.
Results were based on 5,665 interviews with mid-sized businesses across the country. The companies interviewed for the study have 20 to 250 employees and spend an average of $1,500 to $25,000 a month for electric service. They represent a customer segment of about 425,000 mid-sized businesses nationwide.
J. D. Power and Associates, based in Agoura Hills, Calif., is a global marketing information services firm operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting and customer satisfaction.
Navigant Consulting, Inc. is a global management consulting company serving energy-based and other regulated industries and a nationwide provider of consulting services to electric and gas utilities, energy-related businesses and network industries.
Certain statements contained in this news release, including statements with respect to future earnings, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Although PPL Corp. believes that the expectations and assumptions reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in the statements. The following are among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements: market demand and prices for energy, capacity and fuel; weather variations affecting customer energy usage; competition in retail and wholesale power markets; the effect of any business or industry restructuring; the profitability and liquidity of PPL Corp. and its subsidiaries; new accounting requirements or new interpretations or applications of existing requirements; operating performance of plants and other facilities; environmental conditions and requirements; system conditions and operating costs; performance of new ventures; political, regulatory or economic conditions in countries where PPL Corp. or its subsidiaries conduct business; foreign exchange rates; and the commitments and liabilities of PPL Corp. and its subsidiaries. Any such forward-looking statements should be considered in light of such factors and in conjunction with PPL Corp.'s Form 10-K and other reports on file with the SEC.