Xcel Energy Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
July 30, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Strong quarterly results: Second-quarter EPS rose to $0.93 from $0.75 year over year, driven by higher electric revenues, sales growth, AFUDC, and lower depreciation. Xcel reaffirmed its 2026 ongoing EPS guidance of $4.04–$4.16.
  • Positive Sentiment: Expanded investment visibility: The company added approximately $6 billion of incremental investment opportunities through the SPS generation selection, bringing identified opportunities beyond its base plan to more than $10 billion. Management now expects 9%+ average EPS growth through 2030, while noting some projects may extend into the early 2030s.
  • Positive Sentiment: Data center and load-growth pipeline remains robust: Xcel has 1 GW of data centers operating or under construction, another 1 GW covered by signed agreements, and expects to secure an additional 4 GW by the end of 2027. Large-load tariffs are designed to require new customers to cover their generation and interconnection costs, limiting impacts on existing customers.
  • Negative Sentiment: Infrastructure growth requires substantial financing: Higher interest expense reduced second-quarter EPS by $0.12 and common-equity financing reduced it by $0.06. Although Xcel has addressed roughly 85% of its planned $7 billion equity need, continued capital investment may create ongoing dilution and funding pressure.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Regulatory and wildfire execution remain important variables: Xcel reported progress in six rate cases and extensive Colorado wildfire-mitigation efforts, but several settlements still require final commission approval and the company expects additional wildfire legislation and mitigation proceedings in 2027.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Xcel Energy Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

There are 14 speakers on the call.

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Xcel Energy second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Jordan, and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the prepared remarks, and questions will only be taken from institutional investors and analysts. Reporters can contact media relations with inquiries, and investors and others can reach out to investor relations. I'll now turn the call over to your host today, Mr. Roopesh Aggarwal, Vice President, Investor Relations, to begin the conference. Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Jordan. Good morning, and welcome to Xcel Energy's 2026 second quarter earnings call. Joining me today are Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Van Abel, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In addition, we have other members of the management team in the room to answer your questions if needed. This morning, we will review our 2026 second quarter results and highlights, provide updated 2026 assumptions, and share recent business and regulatory updates. Slides that accompany today's call are available on our website. Some comments during today's call may contain forward-looking information. Significant factors that could cause results to differ from those anticipated are described in our earnings release and SEC filings. Today, we will discuss certain metrics that are non-GAAP measures. Information on the comparable GAAP measures and reconciliations are included in our earnings release.

Speaker 1

I will now turn the call over to Bob.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Roopesh, and good morning, everyone. I'm often reminded of the quote that we are living in interesting times. Regardless of the times, we know that access to abundant, affordable energy is highly correlated to a nation's competitiveness, its security, its economic growth, and its quality of life. We at Xcel Energy are here, as we have been for over 100 years, ready to meet the moment and help our customers, our states, and our country build the infrastructure we need to fuel economic prosperity and growth for decades to come. While this opportunity is extraordinary, we've not lost sight of what matters most to our customers and remain acutely focused on customer satisfaction and affordability, system reliability and resiliency, financial discipline, and meeting both the pace of needed infrastructure as well as the clean energy goals of our communities.

Speaker 2

In 2026, Xcel Energy continues to demonstrate strong execution across all aspects of these priorities. Xcel Energy remains the largest builder of new high-voltage transmission lines in the country. It is one of the largest providers of renewable generation for our utility customers. During the second quarter, we invested $3 billion and over $6 billion year-to-date in critical generation transmission and distribution infrastructure across all eight of our states. This includes achieving commercial operations of Group 2 of the Colorado's Power Pathway and beginning construction on our 150-mile, 345 kV transmission project in the Upper Midwest. We also placed into service phase III of our Sherco solar facility, bringing its total capacity to 710 megawatts, making it one of the largest utility-scale solar facilities in the country.

Speaker 2

Last week, the independent monitor for our SPS RFP filed a report on our selection of 2,600 megawatts of new company-owned generation, representing 70% of the total recommended portfolio and $6 billion of new investment needs in Texas and New Mexico. We now have a line of sight to the $70-plus billion of total investments that we described in our five-year plan from last November, all for the benefit of our customers and our communities. We received approval for our Large Load Tariff in Minnesota and made additional Large Load Tariff filings in Colorado and Wisconsin. We have advanced these critical initiatives with strong focus on our customers and a commitment to keeping their bills as low as possible. Finally, we delivered for our investors with strong second quarter earnings of $0.93 per share.

Speaker 2

We remain confident in our ability to deliver on our earnings guidance for the 22nd year in a row, continuing one of the best track records in the industry. Regulatory execution has been a focus all year for the company. I am proud to say that we advanced settlements and/or reached decisions in six active rate cases, all while keeping long-term bill growth at or below the rate of inflation and total energy bills amongst the lowest in the country. This includes commission decisions in our Minnesota electric rate case and South Dakota electric rate case settlement, and proposed settlements in our Colorado electric and natural gas cases, New Mexico electric, and Minnesota natural gas rate cases. At the same time, we improved and invested in programs for the most vulnerable in our community who struggle with affordability, even with our low bills.

Speaker 2

Our settlements in our Colorado rate case provide a path to nearly double the size and participation in our energy assistance programs. While in Minnesota, our recent electric rate case significantly expands both accessibility and funding for customer assistance programs. In addition, we made integrated customer program filings in Colorado and Minnesota, which bundle voluntary customer programs into a single coordinated plan, making it easier for customers to compare options, to find rebates, and to choose solutions that best fit their needs and their budgets. This extraordinary progress reflects strong preparation, early engagement with stakeholders, and disciplined execution. Our regulatory strategy is consistent. Invest in reliability and resiliency and cleaner energy while pursuing outcomes that are fair, transparent, balanced, and mindful of customer bill impacts.

Speaker 2

Moving to capital delivery, we believe that Xcel Energy's approach to project execution is a differentiator in the industry and a benefit to our customers, enabling our ability to deliver a growing portfolio of capital investments on budget, on time, and on scope. The first part of our formula is strategic partnerships. As I mentioned earlier, Xcel Energy is one of the largest regulated builders of renewable and dispatchable generation, and the largest builder of new transmission line miles in the country. Effective execution of projects on this scale are not new for us. Neither are the partnerships with key supply chain and EPC vendors that are needed to deliver for our customers. What is changing is the structure and the depth of these partnerships.

Speaker 2

Over the past three to four years, we have shifted our approach to ensure that we are a partner of choice with our tier 1 suppliers and EPC partners over our 5-plus year portfolio, which includes nearly 13 GW of new renewable generation and battery storage, over 3 GW of new natural gas generation, and nearly 2,000 high voltage transmission line miles. These partnerships help ensure that we have access to the labor and equipment capacity that we need to deliver with certainty for our customers well into the 2030s. In addition, we've consolidated and standardized major project planning and execution under one organization, ensuring consistency, accountability, and visibility across our generation, transmission, and distribution investments. By using repeatable designs and strong governance, we're driving greater capital efficiency, reducing execution risk, and increasing schedule certainty across our portfolio.

Speaker 2

Finally, we know that our people and access to critical talent is essential to long-term success. We have an incredibly talented and tenured workforce. We're also investing in workforce development through partnerships with our EPC firms, high schools, trade programs, and universities. These efforts are supporting thousands of students, apprentices, and trainees, helping us build the skilled workforce needed to deliver projects safely and reliably while creating economic opportunity in the communities that we serve. Accordingly, Xcel Energy continues to demonstrate that our regulated development team is one of the best in the industry, helping build 16 GW of new generation and storage and over 2,000 miles of new transmission for our communities while keeping costs low for our customers. Last week, the independent monitor filed its report on our SPS competitive RFP process that was seeking 1,500-3,000 MW of incremental nameplate capacity.

Speaker 2

SPS was selected to provide 2,400 MW of renewables and 200 MW of natural gas-fired generation, representing 70% of the overall portfolio and approximately $6 billion of investment that supports continued economic growth in Texas and New Mexico. This portfolio allocation brings line of sight in our incremental investment plan to $10-plus billion. We're six months into our 5-year plan and have already executed on the original pipeline we identified, with more opportunities to come. From here, we see additional opportunities not in our base plan to invest and serve our growing customer needs, including ongoing and upcoming generation RFPs in Colorado and the upper Midwest, transmission investments in each of our operating companies, and generations to support 3 GW of data center demand that we added to our target plan on our Q4 earnings call.

Speaker 2

Our base capital plan remains anchored in the core investments needed to retire legacy coal generation assets this decade and make critical investments into our transmission and distribution systems to support reliability, resiliency, and industrial growth. Capital investments arising from future data center opportunities are generally ascribed to our upside plan, and we're taking a disciplined approach to ensure that new load growth is supported by appropriate commercial structures and regulatory frameworks. This includes Large Load Tariffs that were recently approved in Minnesota and filed in Colorado and Wisconsin, each of which protect and lower bills for existing customers while creating long-term benefits for our communities and investors. We remain confident in our ability to deliver on our data center forecast.

Speaker 2

We have 1 gigawatt of data centers in operation or under construction, an additional 1 gigawatt of data centers under signed ESAs, and we expect to secure an additional 4 gigawatts of data center load by year-end 2027, including at least 1 gigawatt by the end of this year. Our confidence is supported by the strength and depth of our customer pipeline, our proven ability to execute large-scale infrastructure projects, and the differentiated position of our service territories, which includes geographic diversity across our high probability pipeline. Finally, I want to highlight Xcel Energy's 21st sustainability report, which we released this quarter. At Xcel Energy, we are balancing reliability and affordability while supporting safety, economic vitality, and environmental stewardship. As our customer needs evolve and expectations of the energy system continue to grow, our responsibility is to lead with transparency, purpose, and disciplined execution.

Speaker 2

The report reflects meaningful progress at scale. Over the past two decades, Xcel Energy has reduced carbon emissions nearly 60%, reduced water consumption more than 35%, and enabled nearly 14,000 megawatts of wind and solar in our system, all while maintaining a resilient grid and keeping customer bills amongst the lowest in the country. As we look ahead, the energy system will continue to change with growing demand from economic development, electrification, and new large loads. Our destination has not changed. We remain committed to leading the energy transition in a way that is reliable, affordable, sustainable, and grounded in customer value. With that, I'll turn it over to Brian.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Bob. Good morning, everyone. Starting with our financial results, Xcel Energy had strong earnings of $0.93 per share for the second quarter of 2026, compared to earnings of $0.75 per share in 2025. Most significant earnings drivers for the quarter are as follows. Higher electric revenues due to non-fuel riders and sales growth increased earnings by $0.17 per share. Higher AFUDC increased earnings by $0.08 per share. Lower depreciation and amortization increased earnings by $0.08 per share. The other items combined increased earnings by $0.03 per share, primarily driven by positive returns in our venture capital portfolios. For the year, these returns largely offset the negative weather that we saw in the first quarter of 2026.

Speaker 3

Offsetting these positive drivers, higher interest expense decreased earnings by $0.12 per share, and the impacts of common equity financing decreased earnings by $0.06 per share. These financing costs reflect the funding of our infrastructure investments and discipline to maintain a strong balance sheet. Turning to sales. On a weather-adjusted basis, year-to-date electric sales increased by 2.1%, driven by increased activity in the energy sector and SPS and manufacturing sector across all OpCos. For 2026, we remain on track for full-year weather-adjusted electric sales to increase 3%. As we look to our financing plan, Xcel Energy is continuing our commitment to maintain a strong balance sheet to fund accretive growth with a balance of equity and debt.

Speaker 3

Between our equity forward and collar contracts, our ATM program, and our junior sub-note issuances, we are already in front of approximately $6 billion or 85% of our $7 billion equity need in our base five-year plan. Moving to guidance, we are reaffirming our 2026 ongoing EPS guidance range of $4.04-$4.16. We remain confident in our ability to deliver 6% to 8%+ long-term earnings growth. With line of sight to $10+ billion of opportunities beyond our base plan, we expect to deliver 9%+ EPS growth on average through 2030. Updates to key assumptions are included in our slides and earnings release. With that, I'll wrap up with a quick summary. Xcel Energy posted strong second quarter 2026 earnings of $0.93 per share. We continue to lead a clean energy transition while ensuring safe, affordable, and reliable service.

Speaker 3

We've reached productive settlements or outcomes in six of our active cases while keeping long-term customer bill growth at or below the rate of inflation and amongst the lowest in the country. We now have line of sight to $10+ billion of opportunities in our incremental investment plan, with additional opportunities to come. We have a formula for major project execution that combines strategic partnerships with project standardization and workforce development that will enable Xcel Energy to deliver projects on budget, on time, and on scope well into the 2030s. We maintain a strong balance sheet and credit metrics and have addressed approximately 85% of our base $7 billion five-year equity need. We are reaffirming our 2026 ongoing EPS guidance of $4.04-$4.16 per share.

Speaker 3

Finally, we remain confident in our ability to deliver 6% to 8%+ long-term earnings growth and expect to deliver 9%+ EPS growth on average through 2030. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we will now take questions.

Operator

It is now the question and answer session, your first question comes from the line of Richard Sunderland from Truist. Your line is now live.

Speaker 4

Good morning, thanks for the time today. A lot to dig into here, I thought I'd just start with the SPS update and the broader CapEx tailwinds you highlighted. I think if I caught that $6 billion figure correctly, it's taking line of sight CapEx to, I guess, at least $13 billion based on that $7 billion from last quarter. With your rate base framework to 20 to 25 dips, that's at least a 250 basis point uplift, moving 11% gross on rate base to well into double digits. How are you thinking about that in the context of the 9% pluses? Is 9% plus still the way to think about growth in the context of a 3Q update, or are the tailwinds aggregating to something that demands more?

Speaker 3

Good morning, there's a lot to unpack in the multiple of questions there. Let me see if I can hit all of it. You're right, we had $7 billion of line of sight in Q1. We added $6 billion. We would just simply say $10-plus billion in terms of our line of sight. Some of that will flow into the early 2030s, so there is a timing component of it. I think maybe I'll step back before talking about how we're thinking about roll forward. You look at that $10-plus billion, the vast majority of that is our generation development. We have, as Bob said, one of the best regulated generation development teams, or probably the best regulated generation development teams in the business.

Speaker 3

What that does is that it creates a value to our customers in terms of bringing forward really low-cost competitive projects. We're winning these projects through competitive RFPs, wind, solar, storage, gas CTs, that's due to our execution and our development team and really delivering low-cost projects for the benefit of our customers. We're excited about what we saw in SPS and the other RFPs, really deliver on that $10-plus billion. As I think about, as I said, in Q1, we talked about 9% EPS growth through 2030. You picked up on the language, we say 9% plus EPS growth through 2030. As we think about rolling forward in Q3, we'll roll forward everything in. We'll also roll forward off of a new basis, as we always do. We roll forward to the new 5-year.

Speaker 3

We'll align everything, our new capital plan, our new financing plan, and a 2027 to 2031 view. As you can hear, we're excited about it. I think we're in a really good place from an execution perspective in the first six months of the year.

Speaker 4

Great. Thanks, Brian. Thanks for tackling the multi-parts there. I'll pick that up, the thought on the generation wins and the commentary on the EPC side as well. It clearly has been a success. How do you think about these recent wins, these recent trends, and the work on the EPC side positioning you on that even more upside basis highlighted in the deck? Is this a structural change to what might be the resource opportunity net to Xcel as we think about Colorado, Upper Midwest, or other generation needs beyond? Is there anything else you'd highlight on the EPC front in terms of how the EPC side has enabled those wins?

Speaker 2

Hey, Richard, it's Bob. Thanks for the question. You do great math. As I think about strategically where we sit, we've been in a generational investment opportunity to rethink how we power and energize our communities reliably, affordably, and sustainably. We've been tapping into the very strategic advantage that the company has to serve customers where wind blows and sun shines. As we've done that, we've been able to drive win-win for customers with a more sustainable, more clean product with bills that are at or below the national average and some of the lowest in the country. We think that will continue. As I said in my prepared remarks, we've got more investment opportunity that we have line of sight to. We will need more large-scale transmission in the country.

Speaker 2

We're the largest provider over the last 15 years, we think we'll be a large provider of large-scale transmission going forward, and that will present long-term investment opportunities. The partnerships with our EPCs makes us very credible, whether those are direct assigned or those are competitively bid. Similarly, on the generation side, we know we have customers who value a very sustainable product. If you took our Google data center deal, it's largely a carbon-free portfolio of generation assets serving that customer.

Speaker 2

As we look at that, we can do carbon-free portfolios for our customers quite cost-effectively, and we think that as energy-intensive industries look to find homes for their assets, whether they're data centers, whether they're new manufacturing, we think they'll selectively choose our territories as places to locate industrial businesses because of the type and the quality of the system that we have, the cost effectiveness of the system, and the sustainable nature of the energy that we sell. We think it's a strategic advantage. We continue to lean into it. We want to partner with our states in economic development and bring that to fruition as we look this decade, but really into next.

Speaker 3

I would just add, if you look at, we talked about 15+ gigawatts of new generation that we're building out over the next number of years. That's the pipeline that we think makes us a partner of choice with our EPCs. If you think about, you can go from standard design for projects. You go from project to project, keeping the workforce together, keeping that crew learning together, keep driving those efficiencies, and then just giving a line of sight for a long-term partnership and project execution that helps with that on scope, on time, on budget. I think it does set us up well as we look into the future for the future RFPs and how we plan to execute for the benefit of our customers. Pretty excited about it.

Speaker 4

Great. Thanks for all that color.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Nicholas Campanella from Barclays. Your line is now live.

Speaker 5

Hey, good morning. Thanks for the time. Morning. Maybe just to follow up on Richard's rate base growth outlook question, just is there anything you'd like to highlight that's changed across the portfolio with the upcoming plan versus the prior, whether it's improved lag through rate case processes and trackers or sales growth visibility? Would that change at all how you're viewing the delta between rate base growth and EPS growth and how we should be thinking about that 40% financing function for equity? Thanks.

Speaker 3

Hey, Nick. As I think, we've always talked about long-term, you see that 200, 250 bips difference between rate base growth and EPS growth. I don't think that has changed with our kind of construction of projects or opportunities. Like I said, we'll certainly roll forward everything in Q3, including a new sales growth plan. I don't see anything that we've announced changes that. We remain focused on execution. Certainly, you have a little bit more delta between rate base and EPS growth in the nearer part of our plan. That closes from just given our equity financing plan, some catch up in terms of some ROE improvements in Colorado as we think about working through the rate cases that we've talked about. Overall, long-term, nothing's changed in terms of that kind of construct that you asked about.

Speaker 5

Great. Then just in the context of the $13 billion, I guess, of visibility now to the upside, just the timing around the 4 gigawatt MSP RFP is pretty large and is a fourth quarter expected outcome. Since that's generation for 2030, can you kind of talk about how that makes it into the third quarter update or not? Thanks.

Speaker 3

Yeah. That should be a fourth quarter update by end of year. We'll certainly, just depending on the timing of that, whether it makes it into our Q3 plan or not, we'll certainly provide visibility when we make that recommendation filing to the commission. We'll work through that and just be very explicit about where it sits in our Q3 plan. It might be a little bit early in terms of our Q3 call.

Speaker 5

All right. Thank you so much.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Carly Davenport from Goldman Sachs. Your line is live.

Speaker 6

Hey, good morning. Thanks so much for all the updates today. Just to start on the regulatory side, you've executed really well on getting settlements in place across a number of your jurisdictions. Just curious, as you think about the path to final approval, how you'd characterize your confidence level there or any risk of intervention that you're watching?

Speaker 3

Yeah, Carly, if I just think about kind of, we've had really good success in our operating companies, and the regulatory teams have worked really hard with the parties as we think about reaching settlements across a number of our states. We certainly appreciate the engagement of all the parties as you work through a settlement. Obviously, there's a lot of call it constructive give and takes that goes into it. Hopefully, our commissions recognize the give and takes and what we think is, we put forward for the settlement, we think it's in the public interest. We're hopeful our commissions see that and that we get constructive decisions coming out of the commissions here in the next few months.

Speaker 6

Great. Thank you for that. The follow-up was just on the 2026 EPS guidance that you're reiterating here. It seemed like there were a couple of assumptions that were changing in the build to earnings this year. It seems like more puts than takes there, all else equal. Just any read-through to where you'd expect to fall within the guidance range this year based on those changes?

Speaker 3

Yeah. If you think of just our guidance changes, certainly we had a significant change in depreciation guidance. That's earnings neutral, just given the change in the nuclear depreciation lives of our nuclear plants in the Minnesota rate case. We had just some gives and takes in terms of lower rider revenue, but that's offset by higher AFUDC. Really not much change from a guidance perspective when I look at it from a bottom-line earnings perspective. Like I said, we have a good start. We feel really good about our first six months of the year. In our just regular cadences, we tighten guidance in Q3. We're sitting here off to a good start for the first part of the year.

Speaker 6

Great. Thank you for the time.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonet from J.P. Morgan. Your line is live.

Speaker 7

Hi, good morning. This is Diana Niles on the call for Jeremy. Thanks for taking our questions today.

Speaker 3

Morning.

Speaker 7

You've outlined expectations to sign another gigawatt of data center load this year and an additional three gigawatts in 2027. I guess within this year and then in next, how are you thinking about the mix between gigawatt scale or 100 megawatt scale projects? Any color there would be appreciated.

Speaker 2

Sure. It's Bob. Look, really excited about the portfolio we have. I would say our high probability portfolio exceeds 20 gigawatts. We're focused largely in the upper Midwest and in the Southwest in the near term, and we see projects in the backlog in the portfolio in both camps, honestly. We see everything from urban data centers in the 10 to 20 megawatt range to 1,000-megawatt campuses across our portfolio. It's hard to say exactly what will happen. I think that our customers are largely aligned. We're spending a lot of time with the hyperscalers and the big data center developers. They're largely aligned to larger campuses for scale benefits, and we're equipped and prepared to move in that direction, and we see scale campuses in the regions that I mentioned.

Speaker 3

We also have people who are looking for maybe, it's hard to say 200 to 300 megawatts are more modest, but we have more modest projects in our portfolio as well. We'll bring them forward as we get to execution. We'll feel great about our guidance on a gig this year and three next.

Speaker 7

Thank you. If I may kind of go back to the topic that Rich introduced earlier in terms of the future for rate base growth moving forward. It sounds like with timing considerations to do that full $13 billion, that's in 2030 isn't quite how to look at it, but how should we think about the horizon for rate base growth? Maybe how long can this double-digit rate base growth extend?

Speaker 3

Maybe I'll just answer it a little bit higher level. Certainly, when we look at these longer-term prospects and you look at our incremental portfolio, renewables will be in service by the end of 2030. We need to make sure that we capture the production tax credits for the benefit of our customers. When you look at renewables that we're moving forward with in that incremental pipeline would be before or by the end of 2030. Certainly captured in our five-year plan. Certainly, some of the larger transmission may slip out a little bit past 2030 as we think about the size and scale of that build and just getting through all the processes. Overall, we feel really good about what's in the five-year plan.

Speaker 3

Also, if I think about longer term, it's a little bit what Bob was talking about, is when we look at data centers here, one gigawatt by the end of this year and three additional gigawatts the end of next year. That's really going to drive a lot of incremental opportunities in the early 2030s, as you think about, they may energize by the end of the decade, but when they need the energy and when they ramp is going to be well into the 2030s. It's how do we think about extending this growth opportunity? That growth opportunity also comes with it affordability benefits for all of our current customers, community benefits, so when you do data center development rights.

Speaker 3

We're pretty excited about that opportunity, not only from a growth perspective for our investors, but just an affordability benefit for our current customers as we think longer term.

Speaker 7

Great. Thank you.

Speaker 2

I think just one thing to add to Brian's comment is, as we think about data center development, particularly in our resource-rich areas, if you have a gigawatt of data centers, you have choices to power it with 100% natural gas. I would suggest that in our regions, it's going to be largely wind, solar storage, and backup gas, which leads to, for every gigawatt of a data center, you're looking at something like $5 billion-$6 billion of investments on the generation side or maybe more. As we think about that ramp that Brian talked about, the data center ramp, the generation ramp that follows that will be capital investment late this decade, but probably extending well into next decade, as well as the transmission needed to support that. There's real investment opportunities in the next decade, as we see on our radar.

Speaker 7

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith from Jefferies. Your line is live.

Speaker 8

Hey, good morning, team. How you guys all doing?

Speaker 3

Good morning, Julien.

Speaker 8

Hey, thank you. Just kicking off, I'd love to hear your thoughts about Colorado and wildfire. Obviously, this year, especially in the state, it's been tragic in some respects, but obviously, the state's focused on this in the context of just dealing with some of the issues in the western part of the state. How do you think about your objectives when it comes to wildfire in Colorado? I know that historically we've talked about a 2027 session and talking about a standard of care bill or something like this. How do you think about the scope of what you're looking at, whether that includes expanded mitigation efforts, et cetera? I'm just thinking through some sort of refreshed view on wildfire here and tackling it at the state level, if you will.

Speaker 3

Yeah, appreciate that.

Speaker 8

How you would think about 2027 writ large. Go for it.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Appreciate the question, and the recognition that wildfire is a statewide issue, a tragedy in many cases for the community that it impacts. I think as everybody in this room and on the call know that with a low snowpack year in winter last year and drought conditions that continue, the conditions in Colorado were challenging. I'm really proud of what we've been able to do operationally in Colorado. We have executed with excellence. From a sheer wildfire mitigation plan effort at Xcel Energy, we had laid out four focus areas for our company. First and foremost is situational awareness. Making sure we understand localized weather patterns and are able to communicate that in localized areas to our customers.

Speaker 3

We have, over the course of the last year, installed over 50 AI-enabled cameras to help not only our situation awareness, but real response to the offices of emergency management at the city and the county levels, which is really helping manage and get early detection of risk areas in the state. The second is weather stations. We've put in almost 300 weather stations in Colorado, and we are performing at a level of excellence in meteorology that it also benefits us, but it also benefits the entirety of the state and the region by which we operate in making sure that not only is the Xcel Energy territory protected, but the entirety of the state. Operational mitigants is the second big bucket. This is EPSS and PSPS activities in the state and in the region.

Speaker 3

We have seen more EPSS days than we have last year, and we've had more PSPS events this year than we had last year. Those are enormously valuable, risk-reducing mitigants in the state in protecting our communities and our customers, as we experience the wildfire regime that we sit in this year. All the while, we're spending a lot of time, money, and effort hardening our system. That's the third bucket is system hardening, whether it's pole inspections, pole replacements, insulators, non-explosive fuses, you name it. We're working on our system to harden it, to segment it, to make it more resilient to the operating environment we find ourselves in. The fourth is really communication with customers, and making sure that we have a deep understanding of our customers' needs. Who has durable medical equipment that needs protection?

Speaker 3

What are our critical customers, not just on the residential side, but on the community side, community centers?

Speaker 2

Offices of Emergency Management and making sure we can maintain services to those while we protect the other customers in the event we have a EPSS or a PSPS event. We've executed across those four buckets with excellence this year, really proud of what we've done to protect our communities. The state has had some wildfires and has had to deal with managing those. We've spent a lot of time making sure that our system, our communities, and our customers are protected. As we roll into 2027, two things I'd highlight for you. You mentioned one about state-level legislation. Obviously, a priority for the company. We've had legislation in the Dakotas, Texas, looking at other states as well, and Colorado will be a focus area for us in 2027. We're working with legislators and stakeholders on that as we speak.

Speaker 2

The second is another wildfire mitigation plan. This plan was a three-year plan. It ends at the end of 2027. We expect to file another wildfire plan with the commission in the early part of 2027 with our plans for moving past this investment cycle and what we do next based on lessons learned and things we've seen in the season. A long answer, Julien, we are working really hard on making sure we can protect our communities and protect our infrastructure.

Speaker 8

Awesome. Yeah, thank you for the detail and thoughtfulness there. Certainly merits it. If I can, just going back to the SPP. You talked about transmission, obviously. I'm focused here on SPP and SPS. How do you think about the ITP plan coming out this year? It seems like it could be another record outcome. Obviously, you all have seen pretty meaningful developments on that front in past years. Then also at SPS, this was, I think, previously framed as a longer-term data center opportunity. How are you seeing, as the data center thesis has creeps in expanded in geographic footprint, again, I'm curious about SPS in particular, given the way that you'd framed it as being more longer term previously.

Speaker 2

Yeah. Thank you for the question. We've been a leading provider of transmission new construction in the country. I think if I recall, I said this on the last call, we might be building 20% of the 765 kV lines in the country that we know of. As the ITP comes out in the next tranche, we would expect meaningful investment opportunity for us, given our skill and our background and our capability to deliver with excellence and with cost effectiveness. The region itself is really attractive from a resource perspective, I think we see a lot of interest from data center developers and hyperscalers around locating data centers there. Our SPS business is maybe one of the lowest, if not the lowest C&I rates in the country.

Speaker 2

We see real attraction from data center developers for the infrastructure we have and the cost effectiveness that we have down there. That will take more transmission in SPS. We are at the south and western end of the Southwest Power Pool and making sure that we have a reliable grid to attract development. Not just data centers. We're seeing enormous growth in the Permian and the Delaware basins from our oil and gas customers, including additional electrification of oil and gas loads. Real growth down in SPS, not just from data centers, and a need to harden the grid and bring new generation there. You see that playing out in RFPs, IRPs, and I think you'll see it play out in the SPP, ITP. Is that enough acronyms for everybody?

Speaker 3

Yeah. Julien, just Bob hit it well, is our growth, the RFPs that we just had in SPS, that's really there to serve the oil and gas growth in the Permian Basin. We think about what Bob said in his opening comments. We really have a diversified growth plan. We are just not anchored on data center growth. Our base plan has very little data center growth baked into it, that is all potential upside is how we think about longer term. We don't have any of that longer-term transmission opportunities in our base plan. We see that as certainly helping well into the 2030s as we look at the significant investment that will be needed in the backbone transmission in that region.

Speaker 8

Tying that back to the earlier comment, sorry. Not included in the upside buckets is the ITP spends coming later in the half.

Speaker 3

Yep

Speaker 8

later in the decade, or later this year, sorry.

Speaker 3

Correct.

Speaker 8

Also separately, there's no contemplated RFP for specific data center build per se, right? Obviously, it's much more diversified, at least for now. That's another bucket to watch for over time.

Speaker 3

Yep. You're absolutely correct. As Bob said, there's been a growing interest in that region from a data center perspective as we look at it and see our pipeline. Obviously, you have a lot of land out there, a lot of territory to build. So a growing interest there, along with really good renewable resources and access to a lot of gas.

Speaker 8

Awesome. All right. Thanks, guys, for the time.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Sophie Karp from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is

Speaker 9

Hi. Good morning. Thank you for the time today. A lot of ground has been covered here. Obviously great update, guys. I was curious where you stand on the new nuclear. A lot of your peers are beginning to, I guess, nibble at that a little bit and exploring potential government incentives, as well as hyperscaler and other large offtaker appetite for participating in that. Where do you stand on that given that you have some nuclear in your portfolio?

Speaker 2

Hey, Sophie, it's Bob. Thanks for the question. I think I'm on the record as an unabashed fan of nuclear energy in the country. I think we as a country absolutely need to have an energy policy and industrial policy to manage both new builds as well as the supply chain and the fuel cycle around that. When I step back and think about Xcel Energy, based on the comments you've heard from us before, we have amazing access to wind and solar resources in the regions that we serve. When I look out into the horizon, we've always said when we committed to being a carbon-free company by mid-century, we always said we needed new, dispatchable, carbon-free technologies, nuclear and advanced nuclear being one of those, geothermal being another, and carbon capture and sequestration being a third.

Speaker 3

We still haven't seen real commercialization of those technologies, although they're on the come for sure. We don't see a need in our resource plans for new nuclear in the near term. In fact, we're quite confident in our ability to meet the growing needs we have with a big portfolio of wind, solar storage, and gas fire backups. That doesn't stop me from being an advocate for what I think the country needs, and the policies I think we need to support them. We will not be an early adopter of new nuclear power plants at Xcel Energy.

Speaker 9

Got it. Thank you. This is helpful. On the large load tariffs, clearly, not a major driver for your plan, but a source of upside. We've seen some pushback in other regions from hyperscalers on overly restrictive large load tariffs in terms of credit ratings and the associated collateral requirements. Is there anything in the large load tariffs in your core territories that could be a source of pushback as well? Or are they more or less accommodating, should I say?

Speaker 3

Hi, Sophie. I can take that question. We just recently, earlier this year, got our large load tariff approved in Minnesota. I would say that was a constructive outcome and we worked with some of the hyperscalers to help craft that. A lot of our large load tariffs look and feel similar to that. Obviously, there's nuances across our territories, but really focused on customer protections and making sure we have the right contract provisions given the potential size of these contracts. No, we certainly pay attention in terms of, I think you could be alluding to the large load tariff proceeding to our east here. When we think about our large load tariff filing in Wisconsin, we look at the provisions, and we look at the overall package we put forth. We think that is really well-constructed and feel good about what we put forth.

Speaker 3

Some of it has more strict provisions in it than maybe some of our peers had. We feel good about what we put forward and looking forward to working with our stakeholders to get these approved. The couple we have talked about, the ones we filed, we're also working in, will be filing in Texas and New Mexico. Our large load tariffs certainly appreciate some of the letters and things that have gone on in Texas and making sure we address that, incorporate that into our large load tariff filing in Texas, which should get filed here in Q3.

Speaker 9

Terrific. Thank you. Funny.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Steve Fleishman from Wolfe Research. Your line is now live. Steve Fleishman, your line is now live. Your next question comes from the line of Shelby de Brisi from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now live.

Speaker 10

Hey, Bob and Brian. Thanks very much for taking my questions.

Speaker 3

Hey, good morning, Steve.

Speaker 10

Good morning. Just quickly, a lot of the questions, whether it's Richard's question or Julien's question, have focused on upside downside or longer-term upside. At the risk of asking for more when you've just, on this call, talked about 9-plus % EPS CAGRs, several of your peers have moved to starting to give kind of longer-term capital guidance and pushing to 10-year, whether it's capital outlooks or earnings outlooks. As you layer in a lot of these RFPs where the capital is spilling into kind of the next five-year plan and additionally start signing up data center contracts, which will be ramping beyond the 2030s, just interested to hear your thoughts on the value or the potential to provide even longer-term capital or earnings forecasts.

Speaker 3

Hey, Steve. As I'm thinking back, we did provide a 10-year capital plan a number of years ago.

Speaker 10

Yes.

Speaker 3

That is something that we've done before. We'll continue to evaluate it. I think you could argue, I certainly appreciate people's perspectives on that. It is something we evaluate, and we certainly look at the 10-year, and I think that's a little bit how we think about. We give our long-term EPS growth guidance. We say six to eight-plus %, and that's much more than a 5-year view. We'll continue to evaluate that. When we look out beyond the 5 years, beyond 2030, we're really thinking about 2030 to 2035. Like you alluded to, that's really where some of our data center strategy comes in. We'll work through that, but I think right now we'll continue to provide a 5-year, but also call out maybe a longer term, if that's helpful.

Speaker 10

Okay. I think that'd be great. Just can you talk a little bit about in Minnesota where the alternative use, like environmental study is progressing? I think the last time we talked, the message was that the community is aligned and just has to go through a longer process, but wanted to hear if there's been any updates there.

Speaker 3

We continue to work with the stakeholders on that. You're talking about the Google progress.

Speaker 10

Yeah.

Speaker 3

We filed the proceeding with the commission. There's a lot of stakeholder support for that project, community support, over $1 billion of customer benefits. We're committed on it moving forward. If you look, we expect, the schedule on the commission proceeding should hopefully get approval early in 2027. Overall, moving forward, excited to bring that project to our community. There's a lot of investment that Google's making, investments in STEM education, investments in a distributed capacity program that's industry-leading here in Minnesota. Looking forward to moving that forward, we'll continue to work with our parties. Overall, when we think about it, we think the environmental review is consistent with Minnesota, we'll continue to work with our parties to make sure we can move forward with that project.

Speaker 10

Appreciate it. That sounds great. Thanks very much, guys.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Steve Fleishman from Wolfe Research. Your line is now live.

Speaker 11

Oh, sorry.

Speaker 11

Is your line unmuted?

Speaker 3

Thanks. I think my question's been asked and answered. Thanks for all the updates. Thanks, Steve.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Kania from BTIG. Your line is live.

Speaker 12

Hi, good morning. I'm just wondering if you could just give maybe just a little color on, stemming from the previous question on the Minnesota Google project. Just overall, what's your sense in terms of public acceptance of the large load, any kind of pushback that you're seeing from any of the jurisdictions that you might be seeing, one way or another? Then, maybe just any color just on key elections that we should be particularly focused on going into November?

Speaker 2

Hey, it's Bob. Yeah, I'll reiterate kind of what Brian said. Real community support for the Google data center here in Minnesota down in Pine Island. We've had great feedback, real customer benefits, and think we'll have our opportunity to put that in front of the commission. We expect the commission to take that up in early part of next year, expect to move forward on that project, and excited about that. Excited about that as a project that we could replicate across our companies in the company. It is a highly renewable project, which we have access to wind, solar storage, and gas plants. We can replicate projects like that in our Colorado company. We can replicate projects like that in our SPS company.

Speaker 3

We're seeing interest from other hyperscalers and data center developers that want a project that looks like that in various parts of our territory. We're excited about that as a template and hopefully we'll use that alongside our large load tariffs as we move forward. Second part of your question was really election cycle. Certainly a busy cycle in the country. It's a busy cycle across Xcel Energy and our eight states. By and large, we've shown that we can manage our business through various political backdrops. As I think about our company, we don't really see a significant change in backdrop through the election cycle. We serve eight states. Half of them probably lean a little bit more progressive, and the other half lean a little bit more conservative.

Speaker 3

We probably think that mix sticks through the election cycle, and we're prepared to continue to have an infrastructure build plan, and work with any administration to make sure that we can execute on our capital investment plans for the benefit of our customers and communities.

Speaker 12

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Your final question comes from the line of Nicholas Amicucci from Evercore ISI. Your line is now live.

Speaker 13

Hey, good morning, guys, and thanks, Bob. You kind of just touched upon a little bit on my question. I just wanted to put a little bit of a finer point on it. As we think about kind of within Minnesota and just leveraging the Clean Energy Accelerator Charge, is that also kind of applicable across all jurisdictions where you're now able to kind of both showcase the clean attributes of building it and the kind of the community acceptance as well as an expedited interconnection process?

Speaker 2

Yeah, thanks, Nick. When you step back and think philosophically of what we're trying to accomplish with data center customers, we expect data centers to pay their full and fair share of the cost to serve them as a company. When the data center shows up and needs new generation, that's how we would expect that to be paid. In Minnesota, we call it a Clean Energy Accelerator Charge. It could take a bunch of different names and packages. Basically, new large load customers will pay for the generation that they need to serve them, and they'll pay for the interconnection that they need to serve them. Customers will get the benefit of having more load on a fixed asset like the grid, and that's how you show real customer benefits over time, is spreading the cost of fixed assets amongst more units of production.

Speaker 3

That's philosophically how we're approaching large loads. It'll take different names and shapes in different states. I think that's how we think about protecting our customers, driving economic benefit in the states, and bringing new assets and new infrastructure to our regions. Yeah, I'd just add, if you look at our Large Load Tariff filing in Colorado, we really have kind of two pathways to bring large loads forward. One creates kind of speed and flexibility focused on, we didn't call it the Clean Energy Accelerator in Colorado, but really very similar opportunity. Colorado is really interesting in terms of the geothermal resources that you have from a clean energy perspective. When we think about what we did in Minnesota, it's really just kind of a really good way to frame up both how we drive and help drive state policy and customer benefits together.

Speaker 3

We're excited about what we can do and expect similar concepts across our states.

Speaker 13

Great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

That concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to CFO Brian Van Abel for closing remarks.

Speaker 3

Thanks all for participating in our earnings call this morning. Please contact our investor relations team with any follow-up questions. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's meeting. You may now disconnect.

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