News

For the second consecutive year, Xcel Energy received Utilities Service Alliance’s Optimizer Award at the 2019 USA Executive Summit last month. During calendar year 2018, the Monticello and Prairie Island plants saved more than $11.1 million through use of USA’s programs and contracts while amassing a remarkable $50.40 return on each dollar of their Alliance membership investment! “Once again, Xcel has raised the bar for engagement and participation in USA savings opportunities. Aggressive identification of reverse engineering opportunities has truly made a tremendous impact on the value they received from USA activities,” said John Christensen, President and CEO of USA. “Congratulations to everyone at Xcel for earning this award.”

During 2018, Xcel saved $1.63 million through the USA programs and projects including Cyber Security, Personnel Sharing, and Nuclear Safety Culture Assessments. They attained an additional $9.71 million savings using the USA group-purchasing agreements. “I was honored to accept the USA Optimizer Award on behalf of Xcel Energy for the second year in a row” said Vice President of Nuclear Fleet Operations, Pete Gardner. For those who don’t know, this award goes to the USA Utility that takes the largest advantage of USA contracts as measured by dollars in savings. For us, this amounted to approximately $9 Million in the last year. This is a testimony to all the Xcel folks that used the designated USA contracts, but also to USA for putting these contracts in place enabling all of us to save money in tough financial times for our industry.”

Award Information
USA created the Optimizer Award to recognize the member utility that best leveraged its alliance membership: achieving the greatest net savings and avoided costs through proactive engagement in the various alliance opportunities.