With $6.6 million in savings and avoided costs, Xcel Energy received this year’s Utilities Service Alliance (USA) Optimizer Award. The award is given to the USA member with the largest amount of savings earned through the aggressive use of USA programs, projects and contracts as reported in the Annual Savings Report.

Because of Xcel Energy’s fleet makeup of boiling water and pressurized water reactors, it’s generally difficult for the company to achieve such robust savings. Some key projects that resulted in the award include:

Fukushima response savings–$1.5 million. The savings are related to contracting with other operators with common vendors, including a large savings from the addition of spent fuel instrumentation required by the NRC.
In-processing coordination for outages–$430,000 savings based upon estimated savings of in-processing time recognized, in part, by sharing best practices within the USA Fleet.
Safety Culture Assessment program–$194,000 savings for using the USA developed assessment tool in lieu of contractor support.
Crane Nuclear – valve services–$582,000 savings
Frham Safety – health physics products–$815,000 savings
UniTech – laundry services–$292,000 savings

“This award demonstrates the strong return on investment we receive from our membership in Utilities Service Alliance, and shows the benefits we can achieve with teamwork across Xcel Energy,” said Don Goble, USA Management Council rep for Xcel Energy. “Cost savings initiatives like this help us meet our strategic priority to bend the cost curve, while also providing reliable electricity to our customers, and operating our facilities safely.”

The average fleet-wide savings for 2013 was approximately $4.7 million per station in savings through their participation in USA fleet agreements and projects. The average return on investment (ROI) was 20.8, which means that for every dollar spent on USA activities, the members saw $20.80 in benefit.

Don Goble, USA Management Council representative and Xcel Human Performance and Industrial Safety CFAM, and Hope Baumann, USA Supply Chain Portfolio Management team member and Xcel Strategic Sourcing Manager, accepted the award on behalf of Xcel Energy.