Natural gas utility customers rate their service providers higher than electric customers, in part because of the fuel’s lower cost and reliability, according to a recent study by J.D. Power. 

In its inaugural Utility Brand Appeal Index (BAI), which surveyed 80,000 residential customers from 149 electric utilities and 85 natural gas utilities over eight months, the data analytics firm said gas utilities scored on average 712 out of 1,000. This was 15 points higher than the electric utilities.

Because of the large sample size, “just one point is a significant difference, so this was 15-times significant,” J.D. Power’s Chris Oberle, managing director for Utilities Intelligence, told NGI. “One of the things to look at is that natural gas does have some benefits to it –...