Florida Power & Light Co., Silicon Valley Power, MidAmerican Energy, and the City of Palo Alto Utilities took top honors in the E Source Gap and Priority Benchmark 2011: A Survey of Utility Large Business Customers.

FPL earned the first-place ranking because its large business customers gave the utility an overall rating of 9.2 on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 = not at all satisfied and 10 = very satisfied). The utility received high scores in all categories, including satisfaction with the utility and with their account representative as well as the value provided by the utility relative to the price paid for energy.

Silicon Valley Power ranked second. Its large business customers gave the utility an overall score of 9.0, and satisfaction with the utility was high as well. MidAmerican Energy and the City of Palo Alto Utilities tied for third place with an overall rating of 8.9. MidAmerican Energy's business customers were notably satisfied with their account representatives and recognized them for being attentive. The City of Palo Alto Utilities' results indicate that its account representatives are seen as trusted energy advisors.

The E Source Gap and Priority Benchmark 2011 is based on survey responses from more than 1,300 U.S. utility large business customers of 22 utilities. According to the 2011 survey results, reliability was named as the most important utility attribute. Working to keep energy prices down, effectively communicating during emergencies, and trust tied for second. Working to keep energy prices down is the area that needs the most improvement; scores for this issue revealed the largest gap between customer importance and utility performance.