RICHMOND, Va., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- E SOURCE, which provides consulting services to utilities and large energy users, has ranked Dominion's Web site, www.dom.com, among the Top Ten utility sites in the United States and Canada.

"Information is second only to energy in order of importance in what we provide to our customers, and the Web has become the primary source of information about us for a growing number of our customers, shareholders, prospective employees and others," said Robert M. Blue, senior vice president, Public Policy & Corporate Communications. "It is gratifying to see that the effort we are putting into dom.com has been recognized."

E SOURCE said a team of residential customers accessed and evaluated 31 informational and self-service features residential customers most wanted to view on their utility's Web site. Features ranged from the Home Page and Contact Us options to more-advanced online functions such as viewing bills, checking account balances and making online payments. For Dominion customers, the self-service features are accessed through the Manage Your Account function on www.dom.com.

Dominion's Web site averages about 1.2 million visits a month, with more than half of those using it for some type of account transaction or information. A site redesign was completed earlier this summer to make it more attractive, easier to navigate and find information, to complete business transactions such as bill payments, and to report outages.

E SOURCE said the reviews were conducted from the perspective of general Internet use, thus rating the sites against the best in class across all Web sites, not just utility Web sites. For the first time, it said, testing was conducted on mobile devices as well as personal computers.

During the latest annual rankings, Dominion's rank among the 100 utilities tested improved from eleventh in 2007 to ninth in 2009. Dominion's Web site ranked second among southern utilities, behind only South Carolina Electric and Gas in the region.

About E SOURCE

E SOURCE has been providing unbiased, objective energy business intelligence to over 300 utilities and large energy users for more than 20 years. Benchmarking services are supported by the latest market research examining what customers prefer in utility self-service. E SOURCE predicts and addresses trends, technologies and problems related to energy efficiency, utility customer satisfaction, program design, marketing, customer management and sustainability.

About Dominion

Dominion (NYSE: D) is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of more than 27,500 megawatts of generation. Dominion operates the nation's largest natural gas storage systems and serves retail energy customers in 12 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com

SOURCE: Dominion Virginia Power

Web site: http://www.dom.com/