(Reuters) -Major U.S. electric utility Exelon increased its four-year capital investment plan by 10% to $38 billion, with the bulk of the spending aimed at bolstering and building new transmission lines, executives said on an earnings call on Wednesday.
Many U.S. power companies have revised up capex plans over the past year as the proliferation of AI data centers and the electrification of industries like transportation grow power consumption.
Aging and the lack of high-voltage power lines and electricity generation are expected to present a key challenge in meeting growing electricity demand, while storms and other climate-driven events batter the existing grid.
“There is no single answer to meeting the levels of load growth that are anticipated, but instead, a variety of solutions,” said Exelon CEO Calvin Butler, who added that the company is engaged in discussions around dozens of proposed state legislations related to the country’s power industry.
The Chicago-based company serves more than 10.5 million customers through six fully regulated transmission and distribution utilities, said last year it has about 11 gigawatts of likely data-center demand.
As a way to help fund infrastructure upgrades, utilities have been seeking to raise customer power bills.
Exelon said several of its rate cases had been approved by regulators and came into effect earlier this year. Regulated utilities use rate case proceedings to determine the amount that customers need to pay for electricity and natural gas services.
As a result, said Exelon expects 2025 adjusted operating earnings to be in the range of $2.64 per share to $2.74 per share, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 2.63 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Exelon posted adjusted operating earnings of 64 cents per share for the fourth quarter ended December 31, above analysts’ estimate of 59 cents per share.
The company’s shares were trading up around 1% after earnings.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York and Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore, Shailesh Kuber and Marguerita Choy)
