CenterPoint Lifts 10-Year Capital Plan to $70.7B, Pulls Spend Forward
Utility Dive’s coverage of CenterPoint Energy’s third-quarter call puts the Houston utility’s capital plan through 2035 at $70.7 billion, up $4 billion, with about $1.5 billion of spending pulled into the first half of the plan.
Market Impact
CenterPoint officials said on the Oct. 27 call that they expect 14 GW of new demand online through 2030. The plan was $66.7 billion when announced in July. Of the $70.7 billion, $51.5 billion is electric and $19 billion is natural gas, with the remainder at the corporate level. The pull-forward lifts planned investment through 2030 by $4.5 billion. Our arithmetic suggests the 2031-2035 window is about $500 million lighter than before.
CEO Jason Wells said industrial and commercial leasing in the Houston area is up more than 30% from last year, and CenterPoint has received nearly 1 GW of distribution-level load requests in the past year. An internal transmission study targets three areas: import transmission capacity, system stability and intra-regional transmission capacity. Wells said it has identified more than a dozen projects needed to add load-serving capacity.
CenterPoint has submitted 17 GW of projects to ERCOT’s large-load interconnection process and expects 12 GW to be eligible as base load or studied load. Batch One opens for applications in summer 2027, and Wells said CenterPoint expects to submit significant additional demand in it. He also cited at least $10 billion of further opportunities through 2035 in Houston transmission, resiliency and large-load work in Indiana. The company plans to file its next System Resiliency Plan by the end of 2027.
The source does not cover cost-recovery filings, including how and when CenterPoint will seek recovery of the added spend. It also does not describe contractor procurement.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Line and transmission crews: The $1.5 billion pull-forward into 2026-2030 shortens lead time on the dozen-plus transmission projects in the study. The source does not describe CenterPoint’s contractor onboarding, so this is our inference. If you are not already prequalified, start the process now for 2027 work.
- Substation civil contractors: CenterPoint has 17 GW in ERCOT’s large-load process, nearly 1 GW of distribution-level requests, and a Batch One window opening summer 2027. Position foundation, grading and duct bank crews ahead of that window. Get prequalified before Batch One applications land.
- Vegetation management firms: Resiliency is named in the $10 billion of additional opportunities, and the next System Resiliency Plan is due by end of 2027. The source does not say vegetation work is in scope, so confirm that with CenterPoint before staffing up. Prequalification is the first step.
- Indiana-based crews: Wells cited large-load opportunities in Indiana as part of the additional $10 billion. That money is identified, not committed to the base plan.
- Budget realism: Treat the extra $10 billion as unapproved until CenterPoint’s cost-recovery filings clear. The one dated marker in the source is the resiliency plan filing by the end of 2027. Plan crew capacity around the $70.7 billion base plan first.
