Duke Energy has signed 2.7 GW of energy service agreements with data centers since its previous earnings report in February, company officials said Tuesday in a call to discuss first quarter results.

That brings the multistate utility company’s total executed agreements with data centers to 7.6 GW, “nearly two-thirds of which are already under construction,” Duke Energy President and CEO Harry Sideris told analysts. “We continue to seize the growth.”

The company announced first quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $1.93/share, compared with $1.76/share for the first quarter of 2025. Duke’s electric utilities serve about 8.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. 

“These results are primarily driven by critical infrastructure investments to meet growing customer demand in our service territories,” Sideris said. The growth positions Duke to achieve a 2026 earnings guidance range of $6.55-$6.80/share, he said. The company also reaffirmed its 5-7% long term earnings-per-share growth rate through 2030.

Duke has another 7.8 GW of “high-confidence, late-stage pipeline” data center projects, according to its earnings presentation.

“We recognize that we're in a once in a generation build cycle and have been collaborating with state and local officials, policymakers and regulators to attract these investments to our communities while protecting our existing customers,” he said. “We've taken a leading role in developing contract structures that establish greater certainty for planning and ensure that new large customers pay their fair share of the overall system costs.”

Duke’s contracts include minimum demand provisions, credit support, refundable capital advances and termination charges, he said. “Importantly, these incremental volumes will benefit all customers over the life of the contract as system costs are spread over a larger base,” Sideris added.

Customers will also benefit — to the tune of about $5 billion — from a pair of first-quarter regulatory accomplishments, Duke officials said.

The utility reached a multiyear agreement with an unnamed counterparty to monetize up to $3.1 billion of Inflation Reduction Act clean energy tax credits that are expected to be generated through 2028. And, Duke received regulatory approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as well as regulators in North Carolina and South Carolina, for the proposed combination of its two utilities in those states.

“Combining these utilities will enable us to meet the Carolina's growing energy needs more efficiently with estimated customer savings of $2.3 billion through 2040,” Sideris said. Between the two accomplishments, “the more than $5 billion in proceeds strengthens our credit profile and helps cost effectively fund our $103 billion capital plan,” he added.

The futures tax credit deal reflects Duke Energy getting more comfortable with the evolving market.

“We've tested the market and we found a couple of partners that we wanted to go longer with. That was the catalyst to negotiate a multi-year contract with this counterparty,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Savoy said. “We feel like that's the best approach, to partner with companies, as this IRA monetization market has continued to mature.”

“Going through an auction each year does take a lot of churn and effort in the system and you don't necessarily get the best prices,” Savoy said. “We tested the prices. We got great value for our customers with this contract. And after we've proven out that the discounts on the tax credits are as good or better than any market we've seen, I think you could expect us to continue doing this.”

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Duke gave an update on its 2025 application to construct a new combined cycle gas plant, with hydrogen capability, in South Carolina. The preliminary estimate of the total project cost was approximately $3.2 billion, inclusive of financing costs, the utility said.

In April, the South Carolina Public Service Commission issued a final order authorizing construction of the plant, and Duke said construction is anticipated to begin next year, with the facility expected to be in service by the end of 2030.

Duke Energy Carolinas submitted its application for an air permit in March to the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services. And it has engaged with North Carolina reglators regarding how the Anderson facility will serve customers in that state. The North Carolina Utilities Commission is expected to make a decision on the application in the fourth quarter of 2026, Duke said.