DTE Energy has announced it will expand its five-year capital expenditure plan to $30 billion, a $5 billion increase in investment.
During a Feb. 13 year-end earnings call, CEO Jerry Norcia said the increase will help the utility improve reliability and transition to a cleaner fleet in accordance with Michigan’s 100% clean energy mandate by 2040. Norcia said the plan has the potential for incremental investment above $30 billion depending on “data center opportunities.”
“This $5 billion increase is a significant increase to our capital plan and is driven by the need to build out renewables to meet the increased demand from the success of our My Green Power voluntary renewable program and to support Michigan’s clean energy legislation, as well as the need to continue to invest to improve reliability for our customers as we continue our efforts to update and modernize our electric grid,” Norcia said.
Norcia told shareholders that DTE has “a solid, long-term development pipeline in place, providing clear line of sight on panels, land positions and permitting.”
“We have panels secured through mid-2027, land positions that should take us into the 2030s and beyond, and permits secured for the majority of our projects through 2027,” COO Joi Harris added.
Norcia said the updated plan includes an additional $3 billion in clean energy investment and $1 billion for improved distribution infrastructure to cut outage rates further.
Harris said DTE was able to reduce outage durations by 70% over 2024. She said the utility over the next five years expects to further reduce power outages by 30% and halve outage time.
In 2022 the Michigan Public Service Commission ordered an audit of DTE and Consumers Energy after ratepayer frustration with a “pattern of widespread, lengthy outages from increasingly severe storms.”
Norcia said the company’s electric arm remains focused on potential demand growth from data centers in its service area. DTE recently signed a nonbinding preliminary agreement with an unnamed company, Norcia said, and if it comes to fruition, it could bring the company’s potential new data center load growth to 2.1 GW. DTE already has signed agreements for an artificial intelligence research facility at the University of Michigan and a 1.4-GW Switch data center complex using some of DTE’s land.
“We are also in discussions with multiple parties for additional opportunities beyond those that I just described,” Norcia said, adding that DTE is supportive of Michigan’s new law offering tax breaks to large data centers.
Norcia said that while DTE is sitting on some excess capacity to serve new data center load, the company likely must build new capacity in the near term. He said plans for baseload generation to support the growth would come in the utility’s 2026 integrated resource plan.
DTE earned $1.4 billion ($6.83/share) over 2024 despite the warmest winter in more than 60 years, according to the utility. Over 2023, the company brought in $1.2 billion ($5.73/share) in operating earnings. It released an earnings per share guidance range of $7.09 to $7.23 over 2025.
Norcia said 2025 performance will be bolstered by the Michigan PSC granting a $217.4 million increase in electric rates in January. The new rates went into effect Feb. 6. The hike in rates was less than half of the $456.4 million that DTE first requested in early 2024.
