Spain's Iberdrola unveils €58B investment plan, prioritizes UK, US power grids

Iberdrola SA on Sept. 24 laid out a €58 billion spending plan for the next four years that will see Europe's largest utility deepen its focus on electricity grids in the UK and the US.

Spain-headquartered Iberdrola, whose market capitalization surpassed the €100 billion mark this year, plans to invest €37 billion into regulated networks through 2028. The planned investment stands to ramp up Iberdrola's spending on grids by 50% compared with the previous four years.

The new plan — unveiled at the company's capital markets day in London — includes about €25 billion for distribution grids and €12 billion for transmission. By 2028, more than half of Iberdrola's earnings will come from networks, up from about one-third historically. The company's regulated asset base is expected to grow 40% to reach about €70 billion over the next four years.

Ignacio Galán, executive chairman of Iberdrola, said the plan is shaped by the company's "structural shift" toward grids, reflecting the expected electricity demand growth across its markets.

Galán, who has led Iberdrola for more than two decades, told analysts that the company's longtime vision of combining renewables, networks and storage is now materializing.

"We have the chance, the opportunity to benefit from the new era of electrification," the veteran executive said, adding that the utility is prioritizing countries that are "waking up" to power demand growth.

That includes the UK and the US, where Iberdrola already operates vast fleets of networks and renewables assets. The two countries will account for two-thirds of the company's total spending in the next four years, up from 40% in the previous four.

In total, about €26 billion will be invested in UK and US grid networks, with €10 billion earmarked for renewables and customers in the countries.

Together, the UK and the US are set to make up half of the €18 billion of EBITDA that Iberdrola expects in 2028, compared with their combined 37% share in the €15.1 billion of EBITDA the company recorded in 2024.

In contrast, the new plan sees just €9 billion of investments in Iberdrola's home market of Iberia through 2028, with the region's share of EBITDA declining from 41% in 2024 to 30% in 2028.

"We are presenting this plan ... to transform Iberdrola's profile into a more regulated group with even stronger focus in high-growth attractive markets," Galán told analysts in London. "We can say we are becoming a growth Anglo-Saxon company in defensive sectors."

Beyond networks, Iberdrola plans to invest €21 billion over the next four years into renewable power and customers.

The utility is aiming to add 9.5 GW of new capacity by 2028 — 75% of which is already under construction — taking its total fleet beyond 60 GW globally.

About €8 billion will go toward offshore wind, with Iberdrola building out 3.5 GW of new capacity across four projects in the UK, the US and Germany.

The 806-MW Vineyard Wind project in the US will be the first to be completed, with Iberdrola aiming for commissioning by the end of the year. Germany's 315-MW Windanker and the UK's 1.4-GW East Anglia 3 will follow in 2026, ahead of the 960-MW East Anglia 2 project in 2028.

Iberdrola's future participation in offshore wind auctions will be "limited to regulated frameworks offering adequate returns, with risk minimized through secured supply chains and route-to-market," the utility said.

The company plans to invest €5 billion into onshore wind, €2 billion into solar and €2 billion into storage. Three-quarters of its pipeline is supported by contracts for difference or power purchase agreements.

Looking further out, the company expects annual investments of more than €15 billion between 2029 and 2031, including €10 billion per year into networks. These investments are expected to help maintain earnings growth in the mid-to-high single digits from 2024.

Galán said the increase in power demand and the acceleration of electrification will "bring upside potential" to this outlook.