Duke Energy has added another $16 billion dollars to its five-year capital plan, which at a current total of $103 billion is now the largest spending plan on file at any regulated U.S. utility, company officials said during a Tuesday morning earnings call.
The company is already spending more than a billion dollars per month in order to keep up with demand and it expects the rate of growth to accelerate in 2027 and 2028, when many new data centers are expected to connect to the grid, Duke Energy President and CEO Harry Sideris said.
Duke’s electric utilities serve 8.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Regulators in South Carolina recently approved its rate increases in that state. Its rate case in North Carolina, where it is also seeking increases, is pending. The parent company is pursuing a merger of its Carolinas utilities.
Duke Energy has signed 1.5 GW in new data center customers since last November, bringing the company's running total of data center service agreements to 4.5 GW. The company's data center deals pipeline of potential customers has topped 9 GW, according to executive vice president and CFO Brian Savoy.
Duke Energy expects to deploy 14 GW of new generation and 4.5 GW of battery storage over the next five years, Sideris said. It recently completed a 100 MW battery installation in North Carolina — the largest on the Duke Energy system to date — and has broken ground on 5 GW of new natural gas generation in the Carolinas and Indiana.
Duke Energy also filed an initial site permit for a small modular nuclear reactor in Belews Creek, North Carolina, Sideris said.
“Providing the reliable power our customers expect requires us to add every available megawatt to the grid and increase speed to power as we build for economic growth,” he said.
Savoy said the newly expanded five-year capital plan would require the company to issue some $10 billion in new equity between 2027 and 2030 — though he said the company is also exploring alternative financing options.
The sale of Piedmont Natural Gas Tennessee, a natural gas distributor owned by Duke Energy, to Spire Inc. for $2.48 billion should close in the first quarter of this year and will help to satisfy the company's immediate capital needs, Savoy said.
