CenterPoint adds $4 billion to its capital plan, now $70.7 billion, for 14 GW of new load
Serguey Asael Shinder1 min readCenterPoint Energy expects 14 GW of new demand to come online through 2030 and has raised its 10-year capital plan by $4 billion to $70.7 billion, executives said on the company's third-quarter earnings call on 27 October, Utility Dive reports. The plan had stood at $66.7 billion in July. The Houston-based utility also accelerated about $1.5 billion of spending into the first half of the plan, lifting planned investment through 2030 by $4.5 billion.
Of the total, $51.5 billion is for the electric business and $19 billion for natural gas operations, with the remainder at the corporate level. CenterPoint initiated 2027 non-GAAP earnings guidance of $2.07 to $2.09 per share, 9% above the 2026 guidance at the midpoint. It says system reliability has improved 40% since 2024 and that it will file its next System Resiliency Plan by the end of 2027.
Chief executive Jason Wells said industrial and commercial leasing in the Houston area is up more than 30% from last year and that the utility has received nearly 1 GW of distribution-level load requests over the past year. The company says the 14 GW of growth will generate $5 billion in customer savings across Texas over ten years.
What it means
Utilities are converting load forecasts into rate base as fast as regulators allow, and CenterPoint is the latest to raise its plan mid-year. The savings claim rests on spreading fixed costs over more demand, which only holds if that demand arrives. Nearly 1 GW of distribution requests is the harder number: those are customers already asking for connections, not projections.