Winning Utility of the Year at CHARGE North America 2026 recognises organisations that bring clarity and leadership to the energy sector.
In this interview, the team shares how a refreshed brand strategy helped unify the organisation, strengthen trust with customers and stakeholders, and create a North Star that guides everything from technology innovation to everyday service delivery.
We spoke with the Xcel Energy team about the thinking behind their approach, the cultural impact of industry recognition, and how they plan to continue raising the bar after winning Utility of the Year
Winning Utility of the Year at CHARGE North America 2026 is a significant industry endorsement. What do you believe truly set Xcel Energy apart this year?
We’re excited the committee called out our deep commitment to serving our customers. As we refreshed our brand in 2025, Xcel Energy recognized that customers have always been central to our company culture, and the brand and visual design updates provided new opportunities to demonstrate this every day in our work.
CHARGE recognizes organizations that move from uncertainty to clarity. Where has Xcel Energy brought the greatest clarity to customers and stakeholders?
The greatest clarity emerged by getting our whole enterprise involved. As we collaborated across all levels and departments of our organization, it became obvious that our company has a deep desire to serve customers, which is how our “Making Energy Work Better” brand statement emerged.
We understood that across our states and customer segments, across our various teams and departments, how we “make energy work better” will differ. For instance, making energy work better might look like a new outage map, improved drone power line inspections, or new call center processes, but it will always point to our customer-centric north star.
How does external recognition like this influence internal culture and leadership ambition?
The award is definitely a nice validation of our employees’ work and long-term commitment. We are an ambitious team, so I think it will only fuel our desire to keep making progress. With everything happening in the utility industry right now, it’s more important than ever to creatively anticipate customers’ energy needs.
Utilities operate under intense scrutiny. How has your brand strategy strengthened trust in a complex regulatory and political environment?
Our brand promise of making energy work better for our customers is intentionally straightforward. We know that by staying true to our North Star principles — specifically, serving our customers really well — we can navigate what will always be complex regulatory, political, and operational considerations.
Now that you hold this title, how do you raise the bar even further?
As excited as we are to win this award, we also know this is a long-term mindset that needs to be consistently executed over time. From operations to digital experience to customer communication, our employees truly want to serve our customers with tools and information that are easy to use and energy that’s as affordable, reliable, and clean as possible.
This work will never be “done” and that’s actually a good thing. There are always new ways we can meet our customers’ energy needs.