Hunter residents are among those disgruntled with their electricity providers, with many of them switching companies altogether, according to a recent survey.

New Roy Morgan data shows customer satisfaction throughout the country dropped by 4.7% points to 69.6% from March 2022 to May 2022 as concerns about the reliability of the grid and soaring prices increased.

In NSW, alone, it decreased by 3.9% points to 71.2%.

The drop is also having a direct impact on people changing electricity provider, with 1.82 million households (18.8% of those connected to the electricity grid) in May 2022 saying they replaced theirs in the past 12 months, up from 1.41 million (14.6%) in March 2022 – an increase of 410,000 (+4.2% points) in only two months.

These are just some of the latest findings collected from the Single Source survey, which is derived from in-depth interviews with more than 60,000 Australians each year and includes over 5,000 electricity customers each month.

Roy Morgan chief executive officer Michele Levine admitted the challenges facing the electricity grid in recent months had caused a sharp fall in customer satisfaction and an immediate rise in customers switching their electricity providers.

“The troubles facing the Australian energy market recently have been highlighted extensively in the media as soaring prices of commodities such as oil, gas and coal have led to shortages and provided perverse incentives for electricity providers,” she said.

“An example of this is what happened during the past few months as the key inputs such as gas and coal rose in price some electricity providers decided that taking their electricity out of the grid would prove financially beneficial as it would force prices even higher.

“These decisions, which were quickly labelled as ‘market manipulation’ by many commentators, were certainly not taken with the best interests of customers in mind.

“Unsurprisingly, the latest Roy Morgan data shows customer satisfaction with electricity providers plunging between March 2022 (74.3%) and May 2022 (69.6%, down 4.7% points in two months).

“The dive in customer satisfaction has a ‘real world’ impact on the bottom line of Australia’s electricity providers – as satisfaction declines, the data shows that more customers are switching their electricity provider – and this is exactly what we have seen over the past few months.

“In May 2022, a rising share of nearly one-in-five households (18.8%, up 4.2% points in two months) have changed electricity providers in the past year.

“This increase has been seen in all four of the key markets of NSW (20.5%, up 3.6% points), Victoria (19.5%, up 5.1% points), Queensland (20.5%, up 6.4% points) and Western Australia (14.3%, up 0.9% points).

“The decision by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to suspend the spot market in mid-June has stabilised the east-coast market in recent weeks.

“However, as long as the prices for oil, gas and coal remain elevated, there is an ongoing risk that electricity prices will continue to increase, and the reliability of electricity supply will remain in question.

“The key for electricity providers to ensure high and rising customer satisfaction is to reliably supply their customers at the lowest price possible.

“In a market in which key input prices are rising, and sometimes falling, rapidly because of various market fluctuations, the ability to navigate these challenging conditions and deliver a high degree of satisfaction to customers becomes more important than ever.”