Inside the Capital Plans of America's Largest Utilities
How the 30 largest U.S. utilities are planning close to $1.1 trillion in investments, illustrating that projected, industry-wide spending may be even higher than previously estimated.
A Historic Surge in Utility Investment
The U.S. is entering one of the largest utility investment cycles in modern history. EEI projects that investor-owned utilities (IOUs) will invest roughly $1.1 trillion over the next five years, reflecting the scale of grid modernization, clean energy development, and resilience work ahead.
ScottMadden’s review of the 30 largest U.S. electric utilities, including several public power entities not captured in IOU-only forecasts, shows a similar level of planned investment. This reinforces that industry-wide capital spending is tracking at or above widely cited projections, and the full scope of activity across all utility types may be even larger.
Source: Edison Electric Institute
What We Found and What's Driving the Investment
ScottMadden analyzed the most recent capital plans, regulatory filings, and large-load data for the 30 largest U.S. electric utilities. Our review highlights both the scale of investment underway and the forces shaping it.
Record Capital Plans
The 30 largest U.S. utilities plan close to $1.1 trillion in capital spending over the next five years, signaling that total industry investment will likely far exceed current forecasts.
Where the Money Is Going
Most planned spending is concentrated in new generation, generation fleet capacity upgrades, transmission and distribution modernization, and grid resilience.
Large Loads Are a Major Driver, but Not the Only One
Many utilities are seeing significant large-load growth, and it is clearly shaping capital plans. However, the scale of investment is also influenced by other major factors, including resilience needs, asset age, electrification, and regulatory expectations. Capital plans reflect the combined effect of these pressures, not just the size of a utility’s large-load queue.
Record Capital Plans
The 30 largest U.S. utilities plan close to $1.1 trillion in capital spending over the next five years, signaling that total industry investment will likely far exceed current forecasts.
Where the Money Is Going
Most planned spending is concentrated in new generation, generation fleet capacity upgrades, transmission and distribution modernization, and grid resilience.
Large Loads Are a Major Driver but Not the Only One
Many utilities are seeing significant large-load growth, and it is clearly shaping capital plans. However, the scale of investment is also influenced by other major factors, including resilience needs, asset age, electrification, and regulatory expectations. Capital plans reflect the combined effect of these pressures, not just the size of a utility’s large-load queue.
Key Drivers:
Large-Load Growth
Data centers and industrial expansion
Improving Resilience
Wildfire mitigation and storm hardening
Aging Infrastructure
Replacement and modernization across generation/transmission/distribution
Clean Energy Transition
Renewables, storage, and nuclear life extensions
Electrification
Higher demand from vehicles and buildings
Regulatory Requirements
Increasing expectations for reliability, transparency, and modernization
Together, these findings show that utilities are responding to a combination of pressures rather than any single dominant driver.
The table below displays the capital plans and large-load exposure for several major U.S. utilities. Capital plan information reflects the most recent disclosures as of November 2025. Because these programs are rapidly scaling, some in-year updates or increases may not be captured. For the full dataset, complete the form at the bottom of this article.
Assets Managed, Horizon, Investment Highlights, and Large Load Exposure
Duke Energy
Assets Managed:
Generation, Transmission, Distribution, and Natural Gas
Horizon: 2025-2029
Investment Highlights:
- Grid modernization and resilience
- New gas generation capacity
- Utility-scale solar generation and BESS
- Nuclear license renewals and potential SMRs
Large Load Exposure:
- 3 GW
- Only includes recently signed electric service agreements
Southern Company
Assets Managed:
Generation, Transmission, Distribution, and Natural Gas
Horizon: 2025-2029
Investment Highlights:
- New transmission and grid resilience
- Utility-scale solar generation and BESS
- New gas generation capacity
- Existing generation fleet upgrades
Large Load Exposure:
- 10 GW through 2029
- Contracted (7GW)
- Committed (3GW)
- Overall pipeline more than 50 GW
NextEra Energy
Assets Managed:
Generation, Transmission, and Distribution
Horizon: 2025-2029
Investment Highlights:
- New renewables and BESS projects
- Repowering wind and solar assets
- New transmission and gas pipelines
- Duane Arnold nuclear plant restart
Large Load Exposure:
- 6 GW in backlog
- 4.5 GW operating today
PG&E Corporation
Assets Managed:
Generation, Transmission, Distribution, and Natural Gas
Horizon: 2026-2030
Investment Highlights:
- Grid hardening and wildfire risk mitigation
- Grid modernization and microgrids
- Transmission and substation upgrades
Large Load Exposure:
- 10 GW through 2035
- 8.45 GW in application and preliminary engineering
- 1.5 GW in final engineering
- 0.05 GW in construction
Exelon Corporation
Assets Managed:
Transmission, Distribution, and Natural Gas
Horizon: 2025-2028
Investment Highlights:
- Grid modernization and resilience investments
- EV infrastructure, DERs enablement, and renewables interconnection
- AMI, automation, and digital platforms
- Sustainability and clean-energy transition
Large Load Exposure:
- 18 GW
- Only accounts for projects in an official phase of engineering with deposits paid
American Electric Power (AEP)
Assets Managed:
Generation, Transmission, and Distribution
Horizon: 2025-2029
Investment Highlights:
- New solar, wind, and BESS projects
- New gas generation capacity
- Heavy transmission build
- Distribution network upgrades
Large Load Exposure:
- 28 GW
- Incremental contracted load from 2025 to 2030; 79% data centers, 21% industrials
Edison International
Assets Managed:
Generation, Transmission, and Distribution
Horizon: 2025-2028
Investment Highlights:
- Grid hardening and wildfire mitigation
- Transmission and distribution modernization
- EV infrastructure, DERs enablement, and renewables interconnection
- NextGen ERP and advanced metering infrastructure
Large Load Exposure:
- 0.8 GW
- Existing data center demand only
- Long-term outlook ~0 .98 GW
Dominion Energy
Assets Managed:
Generation, Transmission, Distribution, and Natural Gas
Horizon: 2025-2029
Investment Highlights:
- Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm
- Transmission and distribution modernization to serve large loads
- Nuclear life-extension and related investments
- Utility-scale solar generation and offshore wind connect
Large Load Exposure:
- 47.1 GW
- 28.2 GW with SELOA
- 9.0 GW with CLOA
- 9.8 GW with ESA
First Energy Corp.
Assets Managed:
Generation, Transmission, and Distribution
Horizon: 2025-2029
Investment Highlights:
- Heavy transmission build
- Distribution system network upgrades and AMI
- Utility-scale solar generation and offshore wind connect
Large Load Exposure:
- 14.4 GW
- Forecast estimate beyond 2029
- 3.2 GW estimated contracted
- 11.1 GW estimated pipeline
Sempra Energy
Assets Managed:
Transmission, Distribution, and Natural Gas
Horizon: 2025-2029
Investment Highlights:
- Oncor ($29.1B): system resiliency plan, transmission build and upgrades, distribution system upgrades
- SDG&E and SoCalGas ($22.4B): wildfire mitigation, BESS, new transmission build, gas infrastructure
- Sempra Infrastructure ($4B): LNG, storage, wind
Large Load Exposure:
- +31 GW by 2031 (Oncor only)
- Total pipeline includes 606 active requests from LC&I customers, representing 226 GW
What Utilities Must Get Right
Below are four emerging areas of scrutiny and how utilities can get ahead.
1. Project Justification: Are We Investing in the Right Projects?
The challenge: Regulators and stakeholders increasingly demand evidence that every dollar is going to the right project, specifically those that create tangible value for customers. Failure to provide sufficient justification for these investments raises the potential for prudency reviews and subsequent disallowance risk.
Our perspective: Utilities should establish a well-documented capital planning and allocation process where projects are consistently evaluated, prioritized, and selected based on transparent criteria.
- Create standardized business case templates tied to system needs and customer outcomes.
- Maintain clear documentation of cost-benefit analyses, alternatives considered, and scoring methodologies.
- Integrate governance checkpoints to ensure funding aligns with strategic priorities and regulatory commitments.
2. Evaluation of New Technologies: Can We Spend Smarter?
The challenge: As capital plans grow, utilities must prove they are considering grid enhancing technologies (GETs) and other innovations that can defer or optimize investment.
Our perspective: Integrate technology evaluation directly into your system planning framework.
- Model the potential impact of GETs, such as dynamic line ratings, advanced power flow control, topology optimization, and advanced reconductoring, and evaluate non-wires options like storage.
- Formalize a review process to document when and why these technologies were adopted or ruled out.
- Use pilot programs and cost-recovery mechanisms to accelerate learning while managing risk.
3. Leveraging Grants, Tax Credits, and Government Incentives
The challenge: Billions in federal and state funding are available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and other programs, but many utilities lack the capabilities required to efficiently pursue them.
Our perspective: Treat external funding like a capital asset.
- Establish a dedicated grants and incentives management function responsible for scanning opportunities, submitting applications, and managing compliance.
- Maintain a central repository of grant eligibility criteria, deadlines, funding status, and reporting requirements.
- Integrate this function into capital budgeting to maximize customer benefit and minimize rate impact.
4. Execution Transparency: Can You Deliver and Prove It?
The challenge: Regulatory oversight is intensifying. Stakeholders no longer accept high-level budget reporting. They want project-level transparency, including execution status, benefit realization, and resource utilization.
Our perspective: Build execution visibility from the ground up.
- Implement portfolio-level reporting tools that aggregate project data in real time, reducing manual intervention and errors.
- Expand tracking beyond budget and schedule to include procurement milestones, resource deployment, and risk exposure.
- Use execution scorecards to directly link investment performance to reliability, resilience, or customer outcomes.
Operationalizing Capital Excellence
The scale of planned investment will challenge utilities to deliver faster, more effectively, and with greater transparency than ever before. The focus is shifting from announcing big spending plans to proving real outcomes by driving reliability, capacity, and customer value.
ScottMadden can help utilities build discipline and visibility to deploy unprecedented capital portfolios while ensuring every dollar invested advances system reliability, resilience, and performance.
Interested in more detail?
The full table includes additional utilities such as Ameren, Consolidated Edison, Xcel, Entergy, DTE Energy, PSEG, TVA, and others.
To access the repository, please complete the brief form at the link below with your name and contact information.
