Xcel Energy has a 2026-2030 base capital investment plan of about $60 billion and “line of sight” to an additional $10 billion that supports growing data center demand with new transmission and generation resources, company officials said Thursday during the company’s second-quarter earnings call.
The company plans to use the funds to invest in 11.4 GW of renewable generation, 3.4 GW of gas generation, 2.2 GW of energy storage, about 1,700 miles of new transmission lines and $5 billion for wildfire mitigation.
Investments included in the line of sight category include generation to support appoximately 3 GW of incremental data center demand Xcel added to its target plan, expected to ramp online through mid-2030s.
Xcel has about 2 GW of data centers contracted or under construction, 4 GW it expects to have under contract by the end of 2027, and an additional pipeline in excess of 20 GW, according to its Q2 2026 earnings presentation.
“We remain confident in our ability to deliver on our data center forecast,” CEO Bob Frenzel told analysts. “Our confidence is supported by the strength and depth of our customer pipeline, our proven ability to execute large-scale infrastructure projects and the differentiated position of our service territories, which includes geographic diversity across our high probability pipeline.”
Xcel owns utilities that provide electric and gas service in Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and Texas.
The base capital plan remains “anchored in the core investments needed to retire legacy coal generation assets this decade and make critical investments into our transmission and distribution systems to support reliability, resiliency and industrial growth,” Frenzel said.
On a weather-adjusted basis, Xcel saw year-to-date electric sales increase by 2.1%, “driven by increased activity in the energy sector in [Southwestern Public Service Co.’s territory] and the manufacturing sector across all [operating companies],” Chief Financial Officer Brian Van Abel said on the earnings call. “For 2026, we remain on track for full-year weather-adjusted electric sales to increase 3%.”
“We've reached productive settlements or outcomes in six of our active [rate] cases while keeping long-term customer bill growth at or below the rate of inflation and amongst the lowest in the country,” Van Abel said.
Those settlements include an agreement in Colorado for a $225 million electric base rate increase and a return on equity of 9.3%. Xcel in November had proposed a $356 million increase with an ROE of 9.8%.
In New Mexico, Xcel has a pending settlement supporting a base rate increase of $90 million and an ROE of 9.5%; the utility had proposed an approximately $168 million rate increase and an ROE of 10.5%.
A decision by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission is expected in the third quarter, according to the company’s presentation. New Mexico regulators are expected to make a decision in the fourth quarter.
The utility reaffirmed 2026 ongoing earnings guidance of $4.04-$4.16/share, and Van Abel said the company expects to deliver 9% or greater earnings per share growth, on average, through 2030. Xcel posted second quarter 2026 earnings of 93 cents/share, compared with 75 cents/share in Q2 2025.
