With the average U.S. electricity rate rising nearly 3% and summer cooling costs expected to increase 8% this year, both residential and business utility customers are increasingly concerned about energy prices. According to the J.D. Power 2024 Sustainability Index, only 21% of utility customers are aware of their utility’s initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, despite the fact that 80% of U.S. utility customers are served by a utility that has set a 100% carbon reduction goal. Energy prices are nearly three times more likely to be cited as the top energy-related concern among customers than environmental issues.

Communication and customer awareness challenges in utilities

Utilities face significant challenges in gaining customer support for sustainability goals, which are essential for justifying rate cases, supporting infrastructure projects, and promoting consumer adoption and behavior change. Andrew Heath, vice president of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power, explains that utilities face an uphill battle without greater awareness and less pessimism about climate change. Effective communication about the goals and benefits of clean energy strategies is critical to building the customer buy-in needed to achieve these sustainability goals.

Key Findings from the 2024 JD Power Sustainability Index

Sustainability awareness is slowly increasing: Awareness of sustainability efforts among electric utility customers has increased slightly, with 21% aware of their company’s goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 19% in 2023. The overall sustainability score, which measures customers’ awareness, engagement and advocacy for the company’s local climate initiatives, increased to 32 out of 100, up 5 points from the previous year.

Affordability takes precedence over environmental considerations: When asked about the most important energy-related issues facing their household or business, 18% of respondents cited energy prices, while only 6.4% cited environmental issues.

Growing pessimism about tackling climate change: An increasing number of customers, 21%, now believe that “nothing” or “very little” can be done to limit climate change. In addition, the percentage of customers who see climate change as a “serious” or “very serious” problem has fallen from 53% in 2023 to 51%.

Skepticism about achieving clean energy goals: On average, only 28% of customers believe their local utility will meet its clean energy goals. There is significant variation among utilities, with top performers seeing over 35% of customers confident in meeting the goal, while others have less than 25%.

Top performing utilities: The highest-scoring utilities in the 2024 index are the LA Department of Water & Power and Sacramento Municipal Utility District, each with a score of 39. Other top performers include NextEra Energy and Con Edison, both with a score of 38.

Evaluating US Utilities: A Comprehensive Overview

The JD Power Sustainability Index evaluates electric utility customers’ awareness, support, engagement and advocacy for local utility climate sustainability programs and goals. The index applies to the 35 largest U.S. electric utilities and cities, each serving 500,000 or more residential customers. It is based on responses from 73,255 electric utility business and residential customers collected from June 2023 through May 2024.

For more information about the JD Power Sustainability Index, please visit the JD Power Sustainability Certification Program.