PPL Electric Utilities retains top residential customer satisfaction ranking

ALLENTOWN, Pa., July 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- PPL Electric Utilities ranked highest among large electric utilities in the eastern United States for residential customer satisfaction for the fifth year in a row, according to a J.D. Power study.

The honor comes as the company continues its investments in technology, the power grid, and the customers and communities it serves.

The award is PPL's 13th from J.D. Power for residential customer satisfaction. It also has received 11 J.D. Power awards for business customer satisfaction.

"We are continually looking for ways to improve the service we provide our customers," said PPL Electric Utilities President Greg Dudkin. "We are particularly focused on providing more reliable service, making it easier for customers to reach us and do business with us, and keeping our rates reasonable."

Dudkin said each of the company's employees plays a role in making a positive difference for customers. PPL, he said, is focused on continuous improvement. "Maintaining the status quo does not drive a more reliable grid or an award-winning customer experience. We're always focused on the next step because our customers depend on us," he said.

The utility is active on many fronts, including:

Reliability: Outages are down 30 percent compared to 2007 and another 15 percent improvement is forecast over the next five years. Investments in stronger poles and wires, more smart grid automation, and comprehensive tree clearing are among the factors in these results.

Customer Experience: Customers who need to speak to a customer service associate can now do so with extended hours and the utility also initiated live chat on its website from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. In addition, the company continues to upgrade its website to make it more mobile-friendly in an increasingly mobile-centric world.

Value: The company's rates are below the average for electric utilities in the mid-Atlantic region. The company continues to find ways to reduce operating costs and work more efficiently, with a goal of keeping customer bills reasonable.

Communities: PPL Corporation established the PPL Foundation in September 2015 to focus on helping the communities it serves, with the focus on education, community revitalization and workforce development. Earlier this year, PPL launched the Cover to Cover child literacy program, providing 25,000 books to more than 5,000 K-3 students in its service area. The aim was to help children expand their reading skills over the summer.

Safety: Nothing is more important. PPL Electric Utilities reaches out in many ways including a program that provides free safety information to contractors and first responders. Thousands of elementary school students also get safety information through performances by The National Theatre for Children.

"The J.D. Power award is recognition of the hard work of more than 2,300 PPL Electric Utilities employees who serve 1.2 million residential customers across a 10,000-square-mile service area," said Dudkin. "It's satisfying to be named tops in the eastern U.S. for large utilities, but we won't sit still."

The J.D. Power East Large utility group is comprised of 16 utilities. PPL Electric Utilities' score of 705 improved on last year's score by 12 points and the average score in the group also increased from 650 to 659. Companies are ranked on a 1,000-point scale.           

PPL Electric Utilities Corporation, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), provides electricity delivery services to about 1.4 million customers in Pennsylvania and consistently ranks among the best companies for customer service in the United States. For more information visit www.pplelectric.com.

Visit our media website at www.pplnewsroom.com for additional news and background about PPL Corporation.

Contact: Paul Wirth, 610-774-5997
PPL Electric Utilities

SOURCE PPL Electric Utilities

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