CenterPoint Energy boosts capital spending plan to accommodate large-load growth

With about 10 gigawatts of large loads in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' transitional batch of projects to be finalized in December, CenterPoint Energy on Oct. 27 announced a $4 billion addition to its 10-year capital plan and a $1.5 billion acceleration of existing projects to be done by 2030.

"The path to affordable rates is through growth," CenterPoint Energy President and CEO Jason Wells said during a third-quarter earnings conference call. "That is what over decades in this industry has helped sort of moderate the impact of investment. It just gives us the opportunity to socialize what are largely fixed costs over an ever-widening base. And I think each of the states we have the privilege to operate in understands that."

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric had submitted about 14 GW of large loads to be included in that transitional "Batch Zero," of which ERCOT deemed about 10 GW to be base load – requiring no further study – and another 4 GW were deemed tentatively approved, pending further study. Developers decided to withdraw about 2 GW of projects from the studied-load category, Wells said.

"We now expect approximately 2 GW to remain studied load," Wells said. "Combined with our smaller transmission and distribution customers' growth, we expect to energize at least 14 GW by the end of 2030. This incredible demand is creating a powerful multiplier effect as large industrial expansions drive broader commercial growth across our service territory. Notably, industrial and commercial leasing activity in the Houston area is up more than 30% from last year. We are seeing that momentum firsthand with nearly 1 gigawatt of distribution-level load requests received in the last year."

CenterPoint said it estimates its Batch Zero loads to come online on the following approximate timeline:

• 2027: 3 GW
• 2028: 8 GW
• 2029: 11 GW
• 2030: 12 GW

Power deliveries surge

In the third quarter, CenterPoint's electric utilities, which also serve customers in Indiana, delivered about 35.8 terawatt-hours of electricity, up 1.1% from Q3 2025's 35.5 TWh. Unusually hot weather in its service areas contributed to this growth, as the variation of Q3 2026 cooling degree days from the long-term average was about 4.8 times that in Q3 2025.

The National Weather Service defines a degree day as the difference between the average temperature in Fahrenheit (maximum plus minimum, divided by two) and 65 F.

Residential customer power deliveries climbed 10.3% to 13.3 TWh in the third quarter, compared with less than 12.1 TWh in Q3 2025. In contrast, deliveries to other power users – commercial and industrial, primarily – fell 3.7% to 22.5 TWh in the third quarter, compared with about 23.4 TWh in Q3 2025.

To meet growth demand, CenterPoint announced that it would add projects totaling about $4 billion for "projects not previously included in our 10-year plan," Wells said, and it would accelerate about $1.5 billion in projects "from the back half of the plan into the first five years through 2030."

This brings the total plan to about $70.7 billion by 2035, with $7 billion to be spent in 2026 and about $8 billion per year from 2027 through 2030. CenterPoint Houston Electric is to get about $4 billion in 2026, $5.2 billion in 2027 and in 2028, $5.7 billion in 2029 and $6 billion in 2030.

Third-quarter results up

In the third quarter, CenterPoint reported GAAP earnings of $331 million, or 50 cents a share, compared with Q3 2025's $293 million, or 45 cents/share. On a non-GAAP basis, CenterPoint reported earnings of $354 million, or 53 cents/share, in the third quarter, compared with Q3 2025's $328 million, or 50 cents/share.

CenterPoint on Oct. 27 raised its 2026 non-GAAP earnings guidance to a range of $1.90/share to $1.92/share from its previous estimate of $1.89/share to $1.91/share.

CenterPoint also initiated its 2027 earnings guidance at a range of $2.07/share to $2.09/share.