As energy demand continues to rise in the Southeast region, utilities are doing what they can. Duke Energy customers and contractors who work for the Charlotte-based utility can eliminate any worries about supply. The company’s continued pursuit of an all-of-the-above generation strategy, and big plans to expand its power sources, should keep the lights on for everyone.
For example, Duke Energy’s capital spending plan covering 2026-2030, announced on February 10, totals approximately $103 billion, making it one of the largest regulated capital plans in the US utility sector. During the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call, executives noted that the CapEx plan represents a roughly 18% increase compared to its $87 billion 2025-2029 plan.
Duke Energy commissioned 305 MW of solar power by 2025.
Photo courtesy of Duke Energy
“The fourth quarter marked a strong end to a productive year, where we met all financial goals, advanced our economic development, started with 5 gigawatts of new dispatchable generation resources and continued to deliver value to customers,” Duke Energy President and CEO Harry Sideris said in the company’s fourth quarter earnings call.
While Sideris noted that “the cost of energy has always been and will continue to be a key focus,” he said Duke continues to “invent new ways to deliver affordable energy to our customers, keeping our rates below the national average and rate changes below inflation.
“We enter 2026 with incredible momentum,” he continued, adding, “the fundamentals of our business have never been stronger.”
The company also noted its success in advancing new generation, including the start of construction of gas-fired generation units, the execution of EPC contracts for approximately 5 GW of gas-fired generation, and the commissioning of 305 MW of solar and 175 MW of storage.
Duke Energy has filed an initial site permit for a potential small modular reactor to be located at the Belews Creek Energy Complex in Stokes County, North Carolina.
Photo courtesy of Duke Energy
Preparing for the future
Duke can trace its roots to the early 20th century, when brothers Benjamin and James Duke, sons of a tobacco industrialist, established the first power plant on the Catawba River to generate electricity to run textile mills near Rick Hill, North Carolina.
The following decades brought Duke Power entirely new load growth challenges.
“The fundamentals of our business have never been stronger.”
—Harry Sideris, president and CEO of Duke Energy
Southward migration and advanced manufacturing had been the main drivers of electric charging. In South Carolina, for example, a state once focused on textiles and clothing, auto manufacturing sparked a whole new cycle of growth.
But the utility’s current expansion comes at a time when AI and data centers are poised to dramatically increase energy demand. “We’re experiencing tremendous growth in our service area, with the Carolinas and Florida in particular being the top regions in the country for customer growth,” says Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks.
In Florida and the Carolinas, in particular, the company is experiencing continued growth in both residential and commercial customers.
Florida saw a net migration gain of 44,504 residents age 60 and older in 2023 alone, the year for which the latest data is available, according to the Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey. North Carolina, the next highest state, had a net gain of just over 20,000.
At the same time, “advanced manufacturing, data centers and other high-load users being added to our system are driving the need to expand capacity and continue to modernize our system,” says Brooks. He adds that Duke’s infrastructure modernization strategy emphasizes “extending the life of existing generation facilities, expanding renewable energy and battery storage, and expanding the capacity and resiliency of our power grid.”
Specifically, Duke’s plan includes delivering an estimated 14 GW of new electric capacity by 2031, with that number including more than 1 GW of planned upgrades to existing plants, according to the company. The latter includes projects that will add around 670 MW of capacity to existing gas facilities, approximately 250 MW of nuclear capacity and 85 MW of capacity from the company’s hydro units. About 5 GW of new natural gas generation is currently under construction in the Carolinas and Florida.
Duke is also accelerating the deployment of battery storage on its system, with about 4.5 GW of capacity expected to be online by 2031.
The company is also considering new nuclear development, and last December filed an Advance Siting Permit (ESP) for a potential small modular reactor to be located at the Belews Creek Energy Complex in Stokes County, North Carolina.
A press release from Duke Energy noted that this was the first permit of its kind for a nuclear facility at the company and described it as “a risk mitigation strategy” as the company pursues this option. An ESP addresses the site’s environmental and safety concerns and confirms suitability for new nuclear generation, thereby reducing future project risks if Duke decides to build new nuclear units in Stokes County in the future.
In January, Duke Energy prepared more than 18,000 workers nationwide to respond to Winter Storm Fern.
Photo courtesy of Duke Energy
“Nuclear energy has and will continue to play an essential role in powering communities across the Carolinas,” Kendal Bowman, president of Duke Energy in North Carolina, said in a news release. “The submission of a site permit application is an important step in assessing the potential for small modular reactors at the Belews Creek site.”
Duke says the ESP includes the possibility of six potential reactor technologies, including four small modular reactor designs and two non-light water designs.
“We are taking a strategic approach to new nuclear development that allows us to advance licensing activities while reducing risks and allowing technologies to mature,” Kelvin Henderson, Duke Energy’s chief nuclear officer, said in a news release.
Also, on March 26, the company announced that the South Carolina Public Utilities Commission approved its plans to build a new natural gas generation plant in Anderson County.
The approximately 1,400 MW station will be a combined cycle plant with hydrogen capacity, and is expected to begin construction in mid-2027 and begin delivering electricity to customers in early 2031. The project marks Duke’s first next-generation development in South Carolina in a decade.
Noting the approval of the proposed project, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said in Duke’s press release, “Duke Energy has long been a strong partner in our state, and this project reflects the kind of forward-looking planning that will ensure we meet these needs with reliable and efficient energy for years to come.”
Duke invested $817 million to build the Asheville combined-cycle station, replacing two coal-fired units.
Photo courtesy of Duke Energy
Increased resilience
Beyond building new power generation and upgrading current facilities, the company is making improvements to its transmission and distribution system, which it describes as the largest of its kind in the country.
“We’re upgrading poles and cables, weather-hardening the system, expanding capacity to support growth and increasing resiliency by adding smart, self-healing technology that can automatically detect power outages and restore service faster,” says Brooks.
“Nuclear power has and will continue to play an essential role in powering communities across the Carolinas.”
—Kendal Bowman, president of Duke Energy North Carolina
The need to harden the power system was on display in January, when Winter Storm Fern pummeled much of the country, including North Carolina, with ice and snow and knocked out power to more than 150,000 Duke Energy customers in the state.
The company had prepared more than 18,000 workers to prepare for Fern, and the Duke Energy Foundation awarded $100,000 to the American Red Cross ahead of the storm, as well as $55,000 in rapid response grants to 21 Indiana organizations.
For its delivery of an energy development program that does all of the above and for finding new ways to deliver affordable energy to customers while keeping their electric rates under control, ENR Southeast recognizes Duke Energy as its ENR Southeast Homeowner of the Year.
