CenterPoint Energy is raising its ten year capital investment plan by $1.2 billion to $66.7 billion as data center demand accelerates across its Texas service territory. The Houston based utility said the increase reflects a growing pipeline of large industrial and data center customers seeking new grid connections.
The company has submitted more than 17 gigawatts of large load projects through the Electric Reliability Council of Texas's new Batch Zero interconnection process, which studies large electricity users as a group rather than one at a time. CenterPoint expects roughly 14 gigawatts of that total to qualify as base load or studied load by 2031, a figure that would represent more than a 65 percent increase over its current system peak demand.
Jason Wells, chair, president and chief executive of CenterPoint, said the company's teams are converting the industry's growth into results for customers, large businesses seeking new connections, and shareholders. He said the projected load growth reflects an unprecedented and dynamic period for the utility sector.
In April, CenterPoint said it expected to energize up to 8 gigawatts of data center load in the Greater Houston area by 2029, with 3.5 gigawatts already under construction at the time. That forecast came with more than 12 gigawatts of firmly committed industrial load, up 63 percent from the prior quarter.
Texas continues to draw new data center investment. The state's grid operator has projected that statewide electricity demand could approach 368 gigawatts by 2032, driven largely by artificial intelligence and data center growth.
Source: DataCenterDynamics - https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/centerpoint-energy-raises-investment-plan-by-12bn-as-data-center-load-pipeline-grows/