Duke Energy is seeing demand growth at a level its new CEO, Harry Sideris, has not seen in his 30-year career, and that is leading to massive investments across its utilities over the next decade. 

“We are ready to meet the moment with a renewed focus on speed and agility and supported by the same spirit of innovation that has been at the heart of this company for over a century,” Sideris said during a first-quarter earnings call May 6. “As I assume the CEO role during this pivotal point for our company and industry, Duke Energy’s mission remains unchanged: delivering long-term value for shareholders and superior service to our customers and communities by building a smarter energy future.” 

To support that new demand, Duke plans to invest $83 billion through 2029 and up to $200 billion cumulatively through 2034. 

That spending includes new generation and transmission and increased spending on its existing generation. The utility recently won 20-year license extensions from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep its Oconee Nuclear Station in South Carolina running until midcentury. Sideris said Duke plans to do the same for the rest of its nuclear fleet. 

The firm also is investing in uprates at its other generators, which are small at the individual level but add up to 1 GW of new supply across its utilities, Sideris said. 

That 1 GW of new supply across its fleet is equal to the amount of load to be served under new contracts it signed with just two large users in April, Sideris said. 

The company plans to merge its Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress utilities, which have maintained some corporate separation since it bought Progress Energy in 2012. The firm plans to file applications with North Carolina and South Carolina regulators and FERC in 2025 and hopes to complete the merger by January 2027. 

“The proposed merger would create significant customer savings, simplify operations and regulatory processes, and add operational flexibility to our system,” Sideris said. 

Duke is seeing growth now, especially in its Southeast utilities and Indiana, but it expects the rate will pick up this decade, CFO Brian Savoy said. 

“We continue to expect load growth to accelerate, beginning in 2027 as economic development projects come online. Our economic development pipeline continues to grow and includes advanced manufacturing projects across multiple sectors, as well as data centers,” Savoy said on the earnings call. “We’re streamlining processes across the organization to accelerate projects through the pipeline, which is yielding results.” 

Duke is trying to figure out how its plans will be impacted by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Savoy said. 

“It’s important to remember that tariffs primarily affect capital, and the majority of our capital spend is American labor, which is not subject to tariffs,” Savoy said. “We currently estimate the impact of tariffs to be about 1 to 3% of our five-year capital plan, and we are confident in our ability to further minimize the impact, leveraging our size and scale to work with suppliers across our diverse supply chain.”