LIPA ranks 6th worst in national survey

The Long Island Power Authority has once again ranked near the bottom in a national survey of customer satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates, though its score improved a point from the year before.

The utility received a score of 582 on a 1,000-point scale relating to such categories as pricing and reliability, an increase from the 581 LIPA received in 2010. LIPA this year ranked sixth from the bottom among 144 utilities in the national survey, which found consumers overall less satisfied with utilities' power reliability and price.

John Hazen, senior director, JD Power, said LIPA's 1-point improvement over last year is not statistically significant but "better than being down a point."

He said LIPA suffered from lower scores on power quality and reliability and customer service, while showing improvement on corporate citizenship, communications and pricing. The average residential bill for LIPA was $208 during the 2011 survey period, compared with $211 in 2010.

In a statement, LIPA said its "overall improvement is consistent with the average increase in our group of peer utilities." LIPA's business-sector ranking by J.D. Power increased 21 points this year, it said.

"While our rankings continue to improve with our residential and business customers, we will continue to strive to better serve our customers through newly implemented programs and initiatives and communications," LIPA said.

But critics said they reflect growing customer dissatisfaction and anger about excessive storm costs and customer overcharges. The state inspector general, at Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's request, launched an audit of LIPA in the spring.

"It is time for LIPA to stop glossing over poor performance with carefully worded press releases and get down to the business of improving service to customers," Matthew Cordaro, co-chairman of the Suffolk Legislature's LIPA Oversight Committee, said in a statement.