CenterPoint Energy raised its 10-year capital investment plan by $4 billion to $70.7 billion on October 27, 2026, during its third-quarter earnings call. The prior figure of $66.7 billion was announced in July. The Houston-based utility also moved about $1.5 billion of spending into the first half of the plan, which lifted planned investment through 2030 by $4.5 billion.
Company officials said they expect 14 GW of new demand to come online through 2030. Of the planned spending, $51.5 billion goes to the electric business and $19 billion to natural gas operations, with the remainder at the corporate level. CenterPoint has received nearly 1 GW of distribution-level load requests in the last year.
CEO Jason Wells said a transmission study begun earlier this year covers three areas: import transmission capacity, system stability and intra-regional transmission capacity. The study has identified more than a dozen projects where investment can add capacity to serve new load.
CenterPoint has submitted 17 GW of projects to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas large-load interconnection process and expects 12 GW to qualify as base load or studied load. The first group moving through the process is called Batch Zero, and applications for Batch One open in summer 2027. Wells said the utility expects to submit significant additional demand in Batch One.
In April 2026, Utility Dive reported that CenterPoint planned to energize 8 GW of data center load by 2029. The company said it sees at least $10 billion of additional investment opportunities through 2035, driven by Houston transmission, resiliency work and large-load customers in Indiana. CenterPoint reported third-quarter net income of $331 million, or 50 cents per diluted share.
Source: Utility Dive - https://www.utilitydive.com/news/centerpoint-expands-10-year-capital-plan-4b/872850/