Xcel raises five-year capital plan 17% to $70 billion

Xcel Energy raised its five-year capital plan 17% to $70 billion, including 9.2 GW of renewable generation and 2.3 GW of storage, the utility said on its third-quarter earnings call Thursday.

The plan, up from $60 billion, also includes 3.3 GW of natural gas generation, 2,400 miles of new transmission and $4 billion for wildfire mitigation, Utility Dive reported. Renewable generation accounts for nearly three-fourths of the new generation, at an expected cost of about $21.7 billion.

Xcel will fund the plan with $26 billion of debt and $8 billion of equity, leaving the equity sale as the part of the plan open to third-party investors, while customer rates and the rate cases that set them support the build. About 40% of the equity is already contracted, CFO Brian Van Abel said.

CEO Bob Frenzel said the investments are "critical to serve growing electric demand, to keep customer bills low, to deliver clean energy, and to ensure system safety and reliability." On data centers, he said: "We believe that existing customers should not subsidize new large loads."

Third-quarter net income rose 83% to $960 million from $524 million a year earlier, helped by favorable weather, rising electric sales and a heavy rate case calendar, Van Abel said.

About $7 billion of the plan is earmarked for data-center projects already under contract, and Frenzel said the clean-energy build should help attract more. Xcel could spend another $10 billion to serve more than 15 GW in pending requests for proposals, high-voltage transmission projects and infrastructure for 4 GW of new data centers it expects to contract before the end of next year.