Southern Company Gas distribution companies named Top Trusted Business Partners among utilities

ATLANTA, July 3, 2019 – Two Local Distribution Companies (LDCs) from Southern Company Gas have been named among the Most Trusted Business Partners in the utility industry for 2019, according to a Cogent Syndicated study by Escalent, formerly Market Strategies International. As two of the top business partners across the U. S., Chattanooga Gas Company and Virginia Natural Gas continue to be industry leaders in business customer engagement and satisfaction.

“To continue to be a leader in the industry, we believe we must put our customers at the center of everything we do at Southern Company Gas. That commitment is certainly reflected in these results,” said Kim Greene, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company Gas. “While we’re proud of these honors, we realize this continued focus is essential to future success. We’ll continue to aggressively search for even better ways to serve our customers.”

The Cogent Syndicated Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™: Business study from Escalent, a top human behavior and analytics firm, measures overall business customer engagement performance based on three core components – brand trust, product experience and service satisfaction. Escalent conducted the survey from among 12,000 utility business customers who responded to the web-based survey of the 78 largest electric, natural gas and combination utility companies across the country.

This is the first year that Southern Company Gas LDCs have participated in this study. Chattanooga Gas Company (CGC) ranked second among all utilities and first in the South region, while Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) ranked seventh among all utilities, and fourth in the South region. Both CGC and VNG were ranked among the Top 20 Business Partners nationally. A third LDC, Nicor Gas, participated in the study and was ranked ninth in the Midwest region among its peers.

For information about Southern Company Gas, visit socogasstag.wpengine.com.

About Southern Company Gas
Southern Company Gas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE:SO), America’s premier energy company. Southern Company Gas serves approximately 4.2 million natural gas utility customers through its regulated distribution companies in four states and approximately 700,000 retail customers through its companies that market natural gas. Other nonutility businesses include investments in interstate pipelines, asset management for natural gas wholesale customers and ownership and operation of natural gas storage facilities. For more information, visit socogasstag.wpengine.com.

About Chattanooga Gas
Chattanooga Gas is one of four natural gas distribution companies of Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO). Chattanooga Gas provides retail natural gas sales and transportation services to approximately 66,000 customers in Hamilton and Bradley counties in southeast Tennessee. The Chattanooga Gas service area includes the communities of Chattanooga, Cleveland, Red Bank, East Ridge, Lookout Mountain and Signal Mountain. For more information, please see chattanoogagas.com.

About Virginia Natural Gas
Virginia Natural Gas is one of four natural gas distribution companies of Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO). Virginia Natural Gas provides natural gas service to nearly 300,000 customers in southeast Virginia. Virginia Natural Gas has been recognized as one of the safest, most reliable and customer-focused natural gas service providers and is consistently ranked in the top quartile for customer satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates. In 2018, Virginia Natural Gas was named Local Distribution Company of the Year by the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy and the Virginia Oil and Gas Association for the third consecutive year. For more information, visit virginianaturalgas.com.

About Nicor Gas
Nicor Gas is one of four natural gas distribution companies of Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO). Nicor Gas serves more than 2.2 million customers in a service territory that encompasses most of the northern third of Illinois, excluding the city of Chicago. For more information, visit www.nicorgas.com.