At a glance
- The Houston utility pulled about $1.5 billion of capital expenditure forward into the first half of the plan, lifting planned investment through 2030 by $4.5 billion.
- For allocators holding the regulated utility, $4.5 billion of the increase lands inside this decade, and $1.5 billion of capex has been pulled into the first half of the plan.
- Industrial and commercial leasing activity in the Houston area is up more than 30% from last year, and CenterPoint has received nearly 1 GW of distribution-level load requests in the past year, Wells said.
CenterPoint Energy added $4 billion to its 10-year capital plan, lifting planned spending through 2035 to $70.7 billion from $66.7 billion, and expects 14 GW of new demand by 2030.
The Houston utility pulled about $1.5 billion of capital expenditure forward into the first half of the plan, lifting planned investment through 2030 by $4.5 billion. Company officials disclosed the figures on a third-quarter earnings call, as Utility Dive reported. Of the $70.7 billion, $51.5 billion is earmarked for the electric business and $19 billion for natural gas operations, with the remainder at the corporate level.
For allocators holding the regulated utility, $4.5 billion of the increase lands inside this decade, and $1.5 billion of capex has been pulled into the first half of the plan. That moves some planned spend closer to earning a regulated return than a plan weighted to the back half would.
“This incredible demand is creating a powerful multiplier effect, as large industrial expansions drive broader commercial growth across our service territory,” Chairman, President and CEO Jason Wells said on the call. Industrial and commercial leasing activity in the Houston area is up more than 30% from last year, and CenterPoint has received nearly 1 GW of distribution-level load requests in the past year, Wells said.
CenterPoint expects the 14 GW of demand growth to generate $5 billion in customer savings across Texas over the next 10 years. Earlier this year, the company began an internal transmission study aimed at raising load-serving capacity in import transmission capacity, system stability and intra-regional transmission capacity, and has identified more than a dozen projects, Wells said.
CenterPoint has submitted 17 GW of projects to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' large-load interconnection process and expects 12 GW to qualify as base load or studied load. The first cohort, Batch Zero, is working through the process, and Batch One opens for applications in summer 2027. Texas has already folded community and ratepayer support into grid access decisions, as Private Wealth Daily previously reported.
Beyond the plan, Wells said the company sees at least $10 billion of additional investment opportunities through 2035, driven by transmission to support Houston's growth, resiliency efforts and large-load opportunities in Indiana. How much of that reaches a future capital plan depends in part on the load that clears the Texas queue.
Electric takes nearly three-quarters of the $70.7B plan
Planned capital spending through 2035 by segment, $B
| Part | Value ($B) | Share |
|---|---|---|
| $51.5B | 72.8% | |
| $19B | 26.9% | |
| $0.2B | 0.3% |
This incredible demand is creating a powerful multiplier effect, as large industrial expansions drive broader commercial growth across our service territory.Jason Wells, chairman, president and CEO of CenterPoint Energy
Reported by the Energy Transition desk from Utility Dive. Published . Corrections