(Reuters) – U.S. utility CenterPoint Energy beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit on Tuesday and increased its 10-year capital investment plan by $1.2 billion, aided by rising power demand in the Houston service territory.
Utilities are pouring billions of dollars into capital spending as they field massive requests for new power capacity from Big Tech firms scouring for viable locations for data centers to handle complex AI-related tasks.
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- The company raised its capex plan for 2026 through 2035 to $66.7 billion from $65.5 billion.
- The ballooning electricity demand from data centers, however, has also led to rising electricity prices and raised concerns around affordability.
- “We know that the most impactful way we can positively affect customer affordability is to help facilitate regional economic growth and connect more new customers onto our system,” said CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells.
- The company now projects 14 gigawatts (GW) of eligible base or studied load by 2031, which is a 65% increase from its current system peak demand of 21 GW.
- Over the next decade, these new connections are expected to reduce Houston Electric’s residential and commercial delivery charges by at least $5 billion, the company said.
- CenterPoint provides electricity and natural gas to more than 7 million customers across Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas.
- The Houston, Texas-based company posted an adjusted profit of 40 cents per share for the three months ended June 30, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 37 cents, according to LSEG data.
Reporting by Dharna Bafna in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli
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