2026 Event Schedule

Global utilities are grappling with the same urgent dilemma — billions in required upgrades, and only a fraction of the capital needed to address them at once. Xcel Energy, which manages a large territory with diverse geographic conditions and risk profiles across the US continental divide, is making major strides in improving quality and speed across investment prioritization and decision-making. This session, led by Todd Conner, Senior Vice President of Electric Distribution at Xcel Energy, offers an inside look at Xcel’s risk modeling strategy and the role of physics-verified, asset-centric AI. 

Every utility aims to improve customer experience, minimize safety incidents, reduce operating expenses, and better prioritize capital expenditures. However, these objectives seldom come to fruition when asset owners are too often forced to execute prioritization decisions without sufficient context. Every initiative, from asset staging to covered conductor installation to new network design, impacts each objective. When it’s only practical to evaluate field initiatives in the context of one objective at a time, the strain of working with just a sliver of the required budget becomes even more acute.

Xcel is redefining its risk mitigation paradigm by eliminating the trade-offs that typically constrain capital allocation across assets viewed through conflicting subject-matter lenses. The presentation will detail the data inputs and analyses Xcel runs continuously to identify, prioritize, and remediate network vulnerabilities. Most importantly, attendees will take away a flexible framework for unifying opex, capex, team, and customer outcome lenses to drive risk-adjusted decisions — from wildfire response to long-term asset planning.

Key Takeaways

• Improve Accuracy and Accountability: How asset-centric analysis translates across workflows and can be the common denominator that unifies processes to paint the “big picture” for better planning, fewer surprises, and stronger trust with regulators and stakeholders.
• Connect the Dots Between Data and Decisions: Learn how Xcel is translating otherwise fragmented data sets into clear, prioritized actions from safety risks like wildfire to long-term strategic investment planning.
• Make Every Investment Defensible: Learn how engineering-grade simulations and analysis help build a clear, defensible business case for each investment decision.