Piedmont Natural Gas Achieves High Rankings in Customer Satisfaction and Trust

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) today announced it has moved up in the rankings of the J.D. Power 2015 Gas Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study and has been named one of the 2015 Most Trusted Brands in the Utility Segment of a nationwide study conducted by Cogent Reports, a division of Market Strategies International.

In the span of just one year, Piedmont has moved from the 20th spot in the J.D. Power study to rank 8th (out of 83 utility companies) in overall customer satisfaction. Piedmont is part of the South Large Segment where it also was only one point away from a tie for second place in overall customer satisfaction.

"We have made it a performance goal for every Piedmont employee to help make our customers aware of the low-cost advantages of natural gas and our active work in the communities we serve," said Brian Woody, Vice President of Customer Experience for Piedmont Natural Gas.

Earlier in 2015, Piedmont also was listed among the top performers in the Residential Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement study by Cogent Reports. Piedmont ranked second in the natural gas category. The study's rankings are based on factors of company reputation and advocacy, customer focus, community support, communication effectiveness, environmental dedication and reliable quality.

Mr. Woody continued, "We continue to focus on delivering excellent customer experiences and execute a grassroots effort in each of our markets. Our goal is to reinforce our brand, engage our communities and give our customers peace of mind as we deliver comfortable, affordable and reliable natural gas to their homes and businesses. I'm proud of our team for fully embracing these goals and for achieving excellent results."

The Cogent Reports study included responses from more than 25,000 residential customers from the 125 largest U.S. utility companies (based on residential customer counts). You can find the full report here.

J.D. Power measures overall customer satisfaction in six categories, including customer service, corporate citizenship and communications.  The results are based on responses from approximately 66,000 residential customers of 83 large and midsize utilities in the United States.   For more details on Piedmont's rankings, or to see the full J.D. Power 2015 Gas Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study, click here.

About Piedmont Natural Gas
Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy services company primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to more than one million residential, commercial, industrial and power-generation utility customers in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including customers served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, regulated interstate natural gas transportation and storage, and regulated intrastate natural gas transportation businesses. More information about Piedmont Natural Gas is available on the Internet at www.piedmontng.com.

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