Press release
Avangrid Wins the 2024 Plan Sponsor of the Year Award for its Retirement and Student Loan Repayment Plans
Honor by PLANSPONSOR Recognizes Leading Companies Focused on Employees’ Financial Health
ORANGE, Conn. — June 13, 2024 — Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE: AGR), a leading sustainable energy company and a member of the Iberdrola Group, announced today that it has won the 2024 Plan Sponsor of the Year award for the company’s leading retirement plan and groundbreaking Student Loan Debt Repayment program. This annual award is presented by PLANSPONSOR magazine, a publication focused on retirement programs, and recognizes retirement plan sponsors that show a commitment to their participants’ financial health and retirement success. Avangrid earned the top spot in the category of “Corporate Defined Contribution Plans $1 Billion and Greater.”
“An important part of being a leading sustainable energy company is investing in our workforce,” said Pedro Azagra, Avangrid CEO. “Earning this award reflects our dedication to a corporate ethos that values the long-term well-being of our employees. With our investments, we aim to foster an environment where innovation thrives, diversity is embraced, and every employee feels empowered to contribute to our shared vision of building a clean energy future.”
Avangrid’s compensation, health and retirement programs are designed to attract, retain and empower top talent. Last year, Avangrid became one of the first energy companies in the United States to launch a student loan debt repayment benefit. Avangrid’s program is available to non-union employees and offers participants a $250 monthly payment, up to a lifetime maximum of $9,000, paid directly to their eligible student loan provider(s). To date, more than 800 Avangrid employees have enrolled, and the program has saved employees more than $2.6 million in principal and estimated interest.
The company also provides a leading employer 401(k) match, providing 150% on up to 8% of non-union employee eligible compensation, and continues to add new features to improve its retirement offering and increase employee engagement. In recent years, this has included auto-enrollment in its 401(k) plan for new employees and an auto-escalation option for contributions to help employees maximize outcomes. This has helped lead to Avangrid reaching a 94% plan participation rate in 2023. Additionally, earlier this year, Avangrid was the first company in the country to implement BlackRock’s new retirement income solution, LifePath Paycheck, which provides plan participates with an option to purchase a lifetime income stream in retirement.
For Avangrid, these improvements are about providing inclusive benefits that support and empower all employees.
“Providing leading financial well-being benefits helps to secure our employees' future and demonstrate our unwavering commitment to their total health and success,” said Paul Visconti, senior director of total health and retirement programs at Avangrid. “This is more than a benefit; it's a statement that every employee's well-being and financial security are a top priority, creating an environment where all can succeed and feel valued and confident."
Photo credit: Matt Kalinowski
Media Contact
For media inquiries, email: corporatecommunications@avangrid.com
About Avangrid: Avangrid, Inc. is a leading U.S. energy company investing in grid infrastructure and power generation projects to deliver reliable energy and meet growing electricity demand. With approximately $50 billion in assets and operations across 25 states, Avangrid is helping modernize the U.S. electric grid, improve system resiliency, and support economic growth for the customers and communities it serves.
Avangrid owns and operates seven electric and natural gas utilities, serving more than 3.4 million customers in New York and New England. Avangrid also has nearly 100 energy generation facilities across the United States and more than 11 gigawatts of installed capacity. Avangrid has more than 8,300 employees and was named among the World's Most Ethical Companies in 2026 for the eighth consecutive year by the Ethisphere Institute. Avangrid is a member of the Iberdrola Group.
About Iberdrola: With a market capitalization of more than €140 billion, Iberdrola is the largest electricity company in Europe and one of the two largest in the world. The Group serves more than 100 million people around the world and has a workforce of 45,400 employees and assets of €165 billion. In 2025, Iberdrola posted a record net profit of €6.3 billion. The company contributes close to €10.4 billion in taxes in the countries where it operates and supports more than 500,000 jobs throughout its supply chain, thanks to €13.2 billion in purchases from tens of thousands of suppliers.
Since 2001, Iberdrola has invested more than €175 billion in electricity networks, renewable energy and energy storage to help create an energy model based on electrification. The company has close to 1.4 million km of electricity networks in the United States (the states of New York, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts), the United Kingdom (Scotland, England and Wales), Brazil (the states of Bahia, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul, as well as Brasilia) and Spain, as well as 57,000 MW of capacity worldwide, of which more than 46,000 MW is renewable.
