Xcel Energy adopts Microsoft Power Platform and empowers citizen developers to deliver $600,000 of value through app and workflow creation

Xcel Energy, one of the largest electric and natural gas delivery companies in the United States, earned its reputation for delivering clean energy by constantly taking new and innovative approaches to efficiency. The company has built upon that leadership role by giving its employees the tools they need to create solutions that streamline business processes. 
 

Xcel Energy saw that the future of the energy industry depends on improving efficiency in everything from field operations to routine office tasks. The company recognized the importance of process automation and began engaging employees to drive better workflows across headquarters and field staff. It turned to Microsoft to help accelerate its digital transformation through strategic process automation using Microsoft Power Platform. By engaging with Microsoft, Xcel Energy identified key business outcomes and created a program strategy that is empowering employees to drive innovation. 
 

Powering digital transformation through employee engagement

Xcel Energy was founded in 1999. It comprises subsidiaries that operate as distinct entities serving more than 3.7 million electric customers and 2.1 million natural gas customers across eight states in the western and midwestern United States. For more than 15 years, Xcel Energy has advanced clean power throughout the region. Xcel Energy has committed to achieving an 80 percent decrease in carbon emissions by 2030 and providing 100 percent carbon-neutral energy by 2050 companywide.  
 

By adopting new automation technologies, the company is saving time and resources while making its operations more efficient. “One great example is the distribution workspace app, which has helped crews almost instantly create work orders from the field, right from their phones,” says John Crennen, Director of Innovation and Transformation Delivery at Xcel Energy. “Before, crews had to call in to a center and wait for back-office personnel to manually create the work order they need. Within four months of the app launch, the call center work orders dropped to zero because adoption of the app was so high.” 
 

Empowering employees to develop more than 1,000 low-code apps and workflows with Power Platform 

Xcel Energy needs to be agile and innovative to maintain its critical energy infrastructure while complying with regulations. The company has adopted a transparent culture to meet those goals. By encouraging employees to experiment with novel technologies and develop their own solutions, the company has accelerated innovation. Because employees are involved in designing solutions to make their jobs easier, development is a lateral, bottom-up process, as opposed to vertical and top-down. Xcel Energy engaged Microsoft in late 2021 to ensure best practices and complete training as it set up a Citizen Developer Program that empowers employees to innovate with Power Platform. 
 

In communication with the Microsoft team, Xcel Energy focused on business outcomes that would benefit its employees and give them access to tools that help them work more efficiently. The company wanted to give employees opportunities to automate and modernize its infrastructure. Using Microsoft Power Apps and Microsoft Power Automate, along with capabilities like robotic process automation, Xcel Energy empowered its employees—even those with little coding experience—to develop more than 1,000 apps and workflows. As a result, Power Apps adoption has grown by 68 percent in 18 months. “Bringing tools like Power Platform to our employees has empowered them to make their work easier and more efficient. It helps them spend their time on more critical items and supports employee engagement,” says Rachel Herrington, Automation Project Manager at Xcel Energy. 
 

Saving nearly $600,000 in work hours through automation on Power Platform

Xcel Energy created the Citizen Developer Program to support employee innovation, improve its workforce, and make everyday tasks easier. Now, monthly work groups and hackathon events encourage employees in nontechnical roles to use low-code and no-code technology. “I think one of the ways I’ve seen the Citizen Developer Program really shine is through our hackathons. Those are wonderful events,” says Herrington. “We had 10 teams come together to build something over the course of two days, and they did presentations for their solutions at the end of those hackathons. And you can really tell that people enjoyed learning to use the tools and having support as they built something.” 
 

The company now uses Power Apps and Power Automate to automate processes. Employees are impressed by the seamless connection between Power Platform and Microsoft 365. “We moved onto Microsoft 365 and had easy access to these tools, Power Apps and Power Automate, which were really centered around making us more efficient and more effective,” says Tyler Rodenburg, Lead Developer for the Distribution Workspace App at Xcel Energy. 
 

Xcel Energy also recognized the potential for developing automation infrastructure that enhances daily operational efficiency using employee feedback. The result was a significant improvement in productivity and reduction in costs that equates to nearly $600,000 in saved work hours. “It was eye-opening,” says Joe Peichel, Enterprise Architect at Xcel Energy. “We could suddenly get very tailored solution paths that worked well for the people who had to use them on a day-in, day-out basis.” 
 

Creating a culture of discovery and exploration through citizen development

Xcel Energy is happy with the results of its Citizen Developer Program, and the company plans to continue driving automation and innovation to its field teams. For example, Xcel Energy is looking forward to exploring AI capabilities through Microsoft 365 Copilot. “I think that lowering the barriers to entry by making tools more natural and language-based will really unlock a lot more citizen development,” says Crennen. 
 

Now that Xcel Energy employees are using Power Platform to drive innovation from the bottom up, the company is eager to see what’s next. “What excites me about Power Platform is that it creates an environment of discovery and exploration,” says Andrea Pasutti, Power Platform Developer at Xcel Energy. “It’s exciting to see what’s going to come in the future.”