At this year's SAP for Utilities, Presented by ASUG, conference, held Sept. 9–11 in Miami, FL, ASUG and SAP recognized the achievements of customers harnessing the power of SAP technology to accelerate innovation and help the world run better.
Announced on Tuesday morning by Jennifer Baldwin, Industry Executive Advisor for Utilities at SAP, who emceed this year's event, the SAP Utility Excellence Awards shone a light on leading customers in the utilities sector.
Award winners were recognized in seven distinct categories and presented with their prizes by Michael Sullivan, National Vice President of Renewable Energy and Utilities for SAP, alongside other industry leaders. Many of those recognized were ASUG members. Below, the winners of this year's prizes:
Excellence in Customer Service
Duke Energy
Acclaimed for its exceptional customer satisfaction with residential natural gas service in the South among large utilities, Duke Energy—and Piedmont Natural Gas, its subsidiary—is one of the most trusted utility brands in the U.S. In 2023, the business deployed the next generation of SAP S/4HANA IS-U while adopting RISE with SAP for their customer information and billing system. Through a seamless transition, completed in just over 15 months, their innovative approach to cloud integration has set a new standard for resilience and performance in the utility industry. For this vision and dedication to customer service innovation, Duke Energy has been honored with the Excellence in Customer Service award.
Excellence in Work & Asset Management
NiSource
Having launched its enterprise asset management (EAM) transformation in 2022, NiSource has since successfully modernized its outdated IT systems and standardized processes to reduce costs, risks, and cyber vulnerabilities. In July of this year, NiSource went live with Phase 1 of this project for 2,000 users in Indiana—only for its systems to prove their resilience during a major storm two weeks later. As NiSource prepares to proceed with Phase 2, for natural gas users, in 2025, the company remains focused on optimizing work processes for efficiency and safety. For this dedication to innovation and operational excellence, NiSource has been honored with the Excellence in Work and Asset Management Award.
Excellence in Cloud ERP Migration
Sempra Infrastructure
Implementing RISE with SAP to achieve a modernized SAP S/4HANA Cloud landscape through its XPANSION program, Sempra Infrastructure integrated value chains and drove a unified single source of truth for its business data across the U.S. and Mexico. In collaboration with PwC and SAP, the Sempra team ensured a smooth, disruption-free transition and set a new benchmark for cloud ERP migrations. In recognition of their success, Sempra Infrastructure has been honored with the Excellence in Cloud ERP Migration Award.
Innovation & Vision Award
Southwest Gas
Southwest Gas faced significant challenges with its existing field inspection solution, which relied on outdated systems for verifying employee and contractor identities, training, and qualifications. To address these issues, Southwest Gas developed a smartphone-based solution leveraging SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), allowing real-time access to employee and training data through unique QR codes. This innovative approach has streamlined inspections, improved safety, and eliminated delays caused by outdated or missing data. In recognition of this innovative solution, Southwest Gas has been honored with the Innovation and Vision Award.
Purpose-Driven Utility
American Water
With a focus on safety, people, growth, and operational excellence, American Water has created a high-integrity, transparent workplace where employees feel empowered to bring their whole selves to work. As the largest and most geographically diverse publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility, American Water has been streamlining operations to focus on delivering clean, safe, reliable, and affordable services since selecting RISE with SAP in 2023. For their dedication to purpose and the communities they serve, American Water has been honored with the Purpose Driven Utility Award.
Utility of the Year – Mid-Sized
Chesapeake Utilities Corporation
For Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, a diversified energy delivery company engaged in the distribution of natural gas, propane gas, and electricity, embarking on a cloud customer information system (CIS) implementation project required clear vision—as well as partnership with SAP and IBM. Though the project later expanded to involve the acquisition of Florida City Gas, Chesapeake remained on track and on target throughout the project, successfully going live this past August. Chesapeake Utilities Corporation has been honored as the winner of the Utility of the Year Award (Mid-Sized).
Utility of the Year – Large Enterprise
Eversource Energy
To build an enhanced customer information system (CIS) on the SAP S/4HANA platform in a private cloud, Eversource Energy conceived and executed Project Omni in collaboration with EY and SAP Active Attention, benefitting over two million electric and gas customers in Massachusetts as of the completion of its Phase 2 in June of this year. Delivering a unified, streamlined customer experience with significant service enhancements, the initiative has transformed Eversource’s relationship with its customers, in alignment with shifting customer expectations and environmental needs. Ahead of its Phase 3 launch in 2025, Eversource has been awarded the prestigious Utility of the Year Award.