Utility Brands Struggle to Connect with Customers, JD Power Finds

Customer Perceptions of Utility Brands Decline Sharply Amid Rising Costs, Reduced Engagement

• Electric and gas utility brand appeal falls sharply year over year
• Brand appeal is directly linked to strong customer satisfaction, support for rate increases
• Utilities are communicating with their customers less frequently

TROY, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Against a backdrop of rising prices, declining communications and lagging industry innovation leadership, electric and gas utilities in the United States are struggling to maintain appealing consumer brands. According to the JD Power 2026 U.S. Electric Utility Brand Appeal Index Study^SM and the JD Power 2026 U.S. Gas Utility Brand Appeal Index Study,^SM both released today, overall brand appeal is declining significantly, contributing to lower levels of customer satisfaction, reduced customer advocacy, lackluster usage of enhanced offerings (such as energy efficiency) and less support for capital improvement initiatives.

“Utility brand appeal is down significantly this year, and that is part of a long-term trend driven by less frequent communications on meaningful topics that connect with customers on an emotional level,” said Chris Oberle, managing director of utilities intelligence at JD Power. “Utilities need to build stronger community engagement and industry leadership, and that means more than just messaging about outages or price increases; they need to become more vocal about their local outreach and investments in industry innovation with more visually appealing communication formats.”

Following are key findings of the 2026 study:

• Utility brand appeal declines sharply: Overall brand appeal index scores decline 4 points to 690 (on a 1,000-point scale) for electric utilities and by 14 points to 700 for gas utilities, driven largely by declines in company reputation and marketing execution. Attributes such as logo design, customer focus, support for local causes, easy to understand communications, innovation leadership, environmental stewardship and reliability also decline significantly across both electric and gas utilities in 2026.
• Brand appeal directly linked to customer satisfaction: Across both electric and gas utility customers, average overall satisfaction is significantly higher among those who indicate positive brand appeal for their utility than among those who indicate negative brand appeal (+407-point difference for electric customers; +388-point difference for gas customers). Among electric utility customers, brand appeal is 57 points lower when customers experience outages.
• Creating customer advocacy: Utilities with appealing brands also enjoy higher customer loyalty, an increase in support for rate increases and a significantly higher percentage of customers willing to advocate for their utility.
• Utilities communicating less frequently and less effectively: The studies evaluate communications effectiveness and find that utilities are communicating with their customers less frequently, and when they do communicate, they are focused on practical, operational issues instead of messages that build positive consumer perceptions. On average, just 41% of electric utility customers and 40% of gas utility customers recall receiving any type of communication from their utilities, which is down significantly from last year. Moreover, utility communications rate low on visual appeal, and they are failing to advocate for their work engaging local communities and leading industry innovation to better serve their customers.

Study Rankings

Highest-ranking electric utilities in brand appeal by region and category are as follows:

Cooperatives: Sawnee EMC (741)

East: PSE&G (719) (for a third consecutive year)

Midwest: MidAmerican Energy (719) (for a second consecutive year)

South: EPB (748) (for a third consecutive year)

West: Seattle City Light (738)

Highest-ranking gas utilities in brand appeal by region are as follows:

East: PSE&G (724) (for a third consecutive year)

Midwest: MidAmerican Energy (732) (for a third consecutive year)

South: TECO Peoples Gas (735)

West: Intermountain Gas Company (733)

To view the complete visual rank charts for each region, visit http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2026065.

The Electric Utility Brand Appeal Index Study and Gas Utility Brand Appeal Index Study, both now in their fourth year, analyze how well U.S. utilities relate to their customers and evaluate the specific actions that influence overall brand experience—including company reputation, marketing execution and customer trust—among 152 electric utilities and 87 gas utilities. The index applies to all U.S. electric and natural gas utilities profiled in the annual JD Power Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study^SM and the JD Power Gas Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study.^SM This year’s studies captured the responses of 142,626 utility customers and were fielded from August 2025 through June 2026.

For more information about the Utility Brand Appeal Index studies, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/u-s-utility-brand-appeal-index-study/

About JD Power

JD Power delivers mission-critical data, analytics and intelligence that help businesses improve customer experience and operational performance with confidence and clarity. Using proprietary, comprehensive data – including millions of consumer interactions and authoritative automotive datasets – combined with advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and deep industry expertise, JD Power enables leaders to respond to market shifts, make smarter decisions and drive measurable performance improvements.

As an objective source of deep insight into real-world customer interactions with brands and products, JD Power provides the independent intelligence organizations need to anticipate change, strengthen customer engagement and advance growth. Learn more at JDPower.com.