Earnings call transcript: Xcel Energy’s Q2 2025 earnings beat forecasts, stock rises

Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL), a $42.2 billion market cap utility company with a defensive beta of 0.37, reported strong financial results for the second quarter of 2025, surpassing market expectations with earnings per share (EPS) of $0.75, compared to the forecasted $0.66. The company’s revenue also exceeded projections, reaching $3.29 billion against an anticipated $3.23 billion. Following the announcement, Xcel Energy’s stock rose by 1.11% in pre-market trading, reflecting investor confidence in the company’s performance and future prospects. InvestingPro analysis shows the company has maintained consistent profitability, with trailing twelve-month revenue of $13.7 billion.

Key Takeaways

• Xcel Energy’s Q2 2025 EPS of $0.75 beat the forecast by 13.64%.
• Revenue for the quarter was $3.29 billion, exceeding expectations by 1.86%.
• The company’s stock price increased by 1.11% in pre-market trading.
• Xcel Energy reaffirmed its 2025 EPS guidance of $3.75 to $3.85.
• Continued focus on expanding renewable energy generation and infrastructure.

Company Performance

Xcel Energy demonstrated robust performance in Q2 2025, with a notable increase in earnings per share from $0.54 in the same quarter of the previous year. The company’s growth was driven by higher electric and natural gas service revenues, which contributed an additional $0.24 per share. However, increased interest charges and depreciation slightly offset these gains. The company also reported a 3.5% increase in weather-normalized electric sales, indicating strong demand for its services.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $3.29 billion, up from $3.23 billion forecasted
• Earnings per share: $0.75, compared to $0.66 forecasted
• Revenue growth driven by increased electric and natural gas service revenues

Earnings vs. Forecast

Xcel Energy’s Q2 2025 earnings per share of $0.75 surpassed the forecasted $0.66 by 13.64%, reflecting strong operational performance. This beat is significant compared to previous quarters, showcasing the company’s ability to capitalize on increased demand and effective cost management.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings announcement, Xcel Energy’s stock experienced a 1.11% increase in pre-market trading, reaching $72.97. This rise indicates positive investor sentiment, supported by the company’s strong financial results and reaffirmed guidance. The stock trades near its 52-week high of $73.56, highlighting investor confidence in its growth trajectory. According to InvestingPro data, the company offers a solid 3.15% dividend yield and has maintained dividend payments for an impressive 54 consecutive years. For detailed valuation metrics and 8 additional exclusive ProTips, subscribers can access the comprehensive Pro Research Report.

Outlook & Guidance

Xcel Energy reaffirmed its 2025 EPS guidance of $3.75 to $3.85, reflecting confidence in its strategic initiatives and market position. Trading at a P/E ratio of 21.57, the company’s valuation metrics are available in detail on InvestingPro, along with comprehensive financial health scores and peer comparisons. The company is focusing on expanding its renewable energy generation, with plans to add significant capacity in Texas and New Mexico by 2030. Analyst consensus remains positive, with price targets ranging from $63 to $80 per share. This includes 1,300 megawatts of wind and 700 megawatts of solar energy, aligning with its commitment to clean energy.

Executive Commentary

"We now have visibility to 15+ billion dollars of opportunities in our investment pipeline," stated Brian Van Able, CFO, emphasizing the company’s strategic investments. CEO Bob Frenzel added, "We serve customers in the most resource-rich regions of the country," underscoring Xcel Energy’s competitive advantage in the energy sector.

Risks and Challenges

• Regulatory approvals for new projects could pose challenges.
• Potential increases in interest rates may impact financial performance.
• Market volatility and economic uncertainties could affect demand.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the company’s preparedness for potential Treasury guidance on renewable credits and its disciplined approach to competitive transmission. Executives expressed confidence in navigating these challenges while maintaining a focus on clean, reliable, and affordable energy solutions.

Full transcript - Xcel Energy Inc (XEL) Q2 2025:

George, Conference Coordinator: Hello, and welcome to Xcel Energy Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. My name is George, and I’ll be your coordinator for today’s event. Please note this conference is being recorded. At the duration of the call, your lines will be in the listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the prepared remarks and questions will be taken from institutional investors and analysts.

Reporters can contact media relations with inquiries and individual investors and others can reach out to Investor Relations. I’d now like hand the call over to your host today, Mr. Rupesh Agrawal, Vice President, Investor Relations, speaking at today’s conference. Please go ahead, sir.

Rupesh Agrawal, Vice President, Investor Relations, Xcel Energy: Thank you, George. Good morning, and welcome to Xcel Energy’s Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Call. Joining me today are Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer and Brian Van Able, 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 second quarter twenty twenty five results and highlights, provide updated 2025 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.

I will now turn

George, Conference Coordinator: the call over to Bob.

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Thank you, Prash, and good morning, everybody. In the 2025, Xcel Energy continued to demonstrate our commitment to our customers, investors and communities to make energy work better. During the quarter, we delivered strong earnings of $0.75 per share. We invested $2,600,000,000 in resilient and reliable energy infrastructure for our customers, navigated an evolving energy policy landscape to ensure that we can continue to provide safe, clean, reliable and affordable electric and natural gas service. We continued our wildfire risk reduction efforts to enable safer and more resilient communities.

Based on our results through the first half of the year, we remain confident in our ability to deliver on our earnings guidance for the twenty first year in a row, one of the best track records in our industry. At Xcel Energy, we believe that we’re in the early stages of an infrastructure investment cycle in The United States that will define many industries for decades. Not just the often discussed AI boom, we see potential investment in onshoring and reshoring of manufacturing and other energy intensive industries. And given our competitive reliability, cost and sustainability, we believe we will be attractive to those industries. And of course, we see strong investment in oil and gas and other energy infrastructure, particularly in our SPS region where we power large portions of the Permian And Delaware basins.

And we continue to see strong energy demand from electrification of transportation, manufacturing and of home heating. Nextel Energy is here to meet the moment for our customers. We set our capital plan, our five year capital plan last fall. We outlined a $45,000,000,000 infrastructure investment forecast to serve increased energy demand and make needed investments to strengthen our transmission and distribution systems. At that time, we also expected that our customers’ needs could exceed that base forecast.

Today, we now believe that we’re likely to need an additional $15,000,000,000 of capital investment to meet our customer needs, largely within our current five year forecast and some beyond. There are several drivers to that incremental need. In June, we filed a generation plan to support energy needs in our fast growing Texas and New Mexico region. Our recommended portfolio included nearly 5,200 megawatts of generation storage to be placed in service by 02/1930. Over 4,500 megawatts is expected to be company owned and operated.

This includes 1,300 megawatts of wind, 700 megawatts of solar, 2,100 megawatts of natural gas CTs and 500 megawatts of storage. We anticipate filing for regulatory approval of these projects over the remainder of this year with commission decisions in 2026. We also anticipate issuing a second RFP later this year for additional resource needs in that region. In the Upper Midwest, we received approval in Minnesota for two firm dispatchable projects totaling seven twenty megawatts and at least an additional 2,800 megawatts of company owned wind that will use our new Minnesota Energy Connection transmission line when it’s placed in service in 2029. RFPs for additional generation projects that are needed to meet customer demand and grid reliability are ongoing, and we expect commission decisions in 2026.

We expect to invest an incremental $3,000,000,000 to $4,000,000,000 in regional transmission projects to support reliability and regional growth, including two seven sixty five kV lines, one from the MISO Tranche 2.1 and the other from the Southwest Power Pool’s ITP portfolio. In addition to this $15,000,000,000 of incremental need, we are actively working through the resource planning process in Colorado that likely requires between five and fourteen gigawatts of new generation to meet reliability and customer demands through 02/1931. We are still working through required regulatory approvals for a number of these projects and will provide updates as they materialize. We expect to formally update our five year forecast through 2030 on our third quarter earnings update. We move to aggressively build the generation and transmission that the grid requires to support both growth and reliability needs.

We’re also navigating a rapidly evolving energy policy landscape. While we predominantly navigate resource plans and transition initiatives at a state level, we’re also very focused on federal legislation as it pertains to how tax credits and permitting can impact customer outcomes. On July 4, the budget reconciliation bill was signed into law. While we saw some challenges to wind and solar tax credits, there are also positive outcomes for customers in the bill. Lower corporate tax rates result in lower energy bills, all else being equal.

Accelerated depreciation of capital is beneficial to customers as is the efficiency of transferability of eligible credits, both of which were continued in the one big beautiful bill. As with the incentives for qualifying energy storage and for carbon free dispatchable resources like advanced geothermal, nuclear generation and carbon sequestration, all beneficial for customers in the country’s energy future. Not surprisingly, renewable tax credits were front and center in the debate around this legislation. Accordingly, we expected limitations to credits as Congress tried to narrow a significant budget gap. For several years now, we’ve been working with our state commissions and other stakeholders on the substantial generation required in our operating regions to meet the reliability and growth needs of our customers.

In total, we estimate that we need between fifteen and twenty nine gigawatts of new generation before 02/1931, of which a significant amount could be sourced from wind and solar. Accordingly, we’ve already invested substantial capital and or physically commenced construction of the clean energy resources included in our base capital plan as well as enough to execute on our incremental investment pipeline, which we believe are necessary to meet the data center and electrification needs of our customers. We’ll continue to monitor and manage through the recent executive orders, agency rule makings and trade and tariff actions and make adjustments as needed as we continue to develop the energy assets that we need in our regions. In addition, we’ve procured 19 gas turbine reservations to meet the reliability needs of our customers. We serve customers in the most resource rich regions of the country, and pairing wind and solar and energy storage and gas backup means that we can deliver clean, reliable and affordable energy for our customers at the speed that they require.

Xcel Energy also continues to make progress to mitigate risk from wildfires and extreme weather. This includes investments in advanced camera and weather station technologies, enhanced power line safety setting installations, pole inspections and replacements, and operational measures such as wildfire safety operations and public safety power shutoff. We’ve also seen strong support from our commissions and states to invest in wildfire risk reduction. In June, the Colorado PUC approved our unanimous settlement for our 1,900,000,000 wildfire mitigation plan, which included a partial securitization mechanism to manage customer bill impacts and an extension of our excess liability insurance deferral. And in July, the Texas Commission approved our $500,000,000 system resiliency plan.

Both investment plans enhance the reliability and resiliency of these systems to mitigate the impacts of evolving and volatile weather patterns. And on the legislative front, in both Texas and North Dakota, constructive wildfire legislation was signed into law. In North Dakota, legislation passed establishing that when a utility is in compliance with an improved wildfire mitigation plan, it has exercised a reasonable standard of care. In Texas, similar legislation passed the states an electric utility is not liable for damages from a wildfire provided it’s not negligent and is in compliance with an improved wildfire mitigation plan. Finally, I want to take a moment to thank our incredible line worker crews and other employees who’ve been working in tough conditions this week to get the lights back on for our customers after two rounds of major storms in the Upper Midwest.

All told, about 200,000 customers experienced outages from storms Sunday and Monday nights, mainly in Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota. More than 2,000 crew members joined in the effort, including crews from our Colorado and our Texas service areas as well as contractors and mutual aid partners. Their dedication to serving our customers when things get challenging is what they’re known for, and I am very proud of everything they’ve accomplished in the past few days. With that, let me turn it over to Brian.

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Thanks, Bob. Good morning, everyone. Starting with our financial results, Xcel Energy delivered earnings of $0.75 per share for the 2025 compared to earnings of $0.54 per share in the 2024. Most significant earnings drivers for the quarter included the following: higher revenue from electric and natural gas service reflecting rate case outcomes and sales growth increased earnings by $0.24 per share and higher AFUDC increased earnings by $07 per share. Offsetting these positive drivers, higher interest charges decreased earnings by $04 reflecting higher debt levels and interest rates.

Higher depreciation and amortization decreased earnings by $03 driven by increased system investment, and increased O and M decreased earnings by $02 per share. Turning to sales. Weather normalized electric sales increased 3.5% for the second quarter, driven by strong sales growth across segments in SPS and PSCO. For the full year, we continue to forecast 3% weather normalized growth. Shifting to rate case activity.

In South Dakota, we filed an electric rate case requesting a $44,000,000 increase based on a 10.3% ROE and a 52.9% equity ratio. Looking forward, we are evaluating options to file an electric rate case in New Mexico, natural gas rate case in Minnesota, and rate cases in Colorado later this year. Moving to data centers. We are making solid progress on our target pipeline and in active negotiations on several ESAs. We remain on track to meet our goal of contracting our total base plan by the end of this year as we have spoken about before.

We also continue to make strong progress on the Smokehouse Creek wildfire claims process. We’ve resolved 187 of the two fifty three submitted claims, which we continue to view as constructive. In addition, we have settled or dismissed 11 of 27 lawsuits. We have committed to $176,000,000 in settlement agreements, of which $123,000,000 has been paid through the 2025. Based on current information and the settlement activity, we are reaffirming the low end of our estimated liability of $290,000,000 which remains well below our insurance coverage of approximately $500,000,000 as we described in our earnings disclosure.

Regarding the Marshall trial, we are preparing for trials starting September 25 and expect it to conclude by mid to late November. Please see our earnings release and slides for additional disclosure on Marshall and Smokehouse Creek. Moving to guidance. We are reaffirming our 2025 guidance range of $3.75 to $3.85 per share. We remain confident in our ability to deliver long term earnings growth in the upper half of our six to 8% target range.

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 twenty twenty five earnings of $0.75 per share. We continue to lead the clean energy transition while ensuring safe, clean, and reliable service and keeping customer bills as low as possible. We now have visibility to 15 plus billion dollars of opportunities in our investment pipeline.

We continue to make investments to reduce risk to our system and communities from extreme weather alongside constructive support from our states. We maintain a strong balance sheet and credit metrics using a balance of debt and equity to fund accretive growth. And finally, we reaffirm our 2025 EPS guidance of $3.75 to $3.85 We remain confident in our ability to deliver long term earnings growth in the upper half of our 6% to 8% target range. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we will now take questions.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you much, sir. Our very first question today is coming from Carly Davenport of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe to start on the line of sight to the CapEx upside moving from that $8,000,000,000 up to 15,000,000,000 I guess, should we be thinking about the potential conversion of that upside into the base capital plan next quarter? Is there spend that could fall outside from a timing perspective or any regulatory considerations that could keep dollars out of the base base plan update? Just any color there would be helpful.

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Hey, Carly. Good morning. Yeah. I’ll try and keep this somewhat succinct. But when we think about it, the SPS RFP, we’re relatively early in that process.

We’ll be filing, with the New Mexico and Texas commissions here in August, and expect decisions of those certificates of need, in the first half of of next year. Minnesota, we continue to work through the RFPs, and then we have the transmission, the big transmission in SPP and MISOS. A lot of that will be in the kinda 26 to twenty thirty time frame with a little bit falling out. But as I I think about it, we’re generally conservative with our you know, with what we view from a regulatory perspective. So we’ll be really clear and transparent on q three in terms of what’s in our base plan, and what’s outside of it.

But overall, I think we feel really good about this, what we’ve now changed, $15,000,000,000 plus line of sight, in terms of the progress we’ve made both in Minnesota and in in SBS.

George, Conference Coordinator: And I think we have one

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: of the best growth prospects in the industry, and it will be really clear on how we lay that out in q three.

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Hey, just to add on to what Brian said, I agree with everything. Look, these projects are largely generation and transmission related in the incremental need category. And while a lot of it’s driven by reliability needs of the existing footprint, some of it’s driven by growth as well. And we know as a company, as an industry, there’s tremendous need for electricity in this country right now to meet growing demand from all the things I mentioned in my prepared remarks. And so we think that this incremental need is real.

It’s going to materialize. And whether it’s in the front five or six or seven, it’s definitely coming towards our territories to support reliability and to support growth.

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Yeah. And I think about it about the Colorado resource plan that we’re working through right now and and expect a commission decision here in q three. That spend the commercial operation for those projects is through 02/1931. So that’s both going to be in this five year and kind of that that incremental CapEx for longer.

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Great. I appreciate all that color. Super helpful. And then maybe just on the SPS resource plan, as you pointed to that in your previous answer, Just could you remind us on your turbine procurement position just as we think about executing on the gas generation, included in that plan? If I recall, when you initially filed it, it was supposed to come into service by kind of the 2030 timeframe.

So could you just lay out the details on that front?

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Sure. Happy to, Carly. In the prepared remarks, I said that we had 19 turbine reservation slots to support either projects that we already know are coming or we will need them for. I think the SPS portfolio requires nine of those 19. And so I think we’re largely ready to supply those on time.

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Yeah. And, Carly, this is something that, you know, we think about our overall scale and relationships with our OEMs and the need for gas generation we see across our footprint. Now we look at you know, we reserve turbine slots in kind of that 27, 28 time frame well ahead of of the market so we could deliver on these projects, because we see a significant need of gas generation across all of our operating companies to integrate the renewables and ensure reliability. So we’re well positioned from that perspective, not only on the EPC side, but also on the OEM side, but also on the EPC side, given the demand on EPCs and the construction of the gas units across the country.

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Super clear. Thanks so much for the color.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you very much, Harni. Next question will be coming from Nicholas Campanella calling from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Nicholas Campanella, Analyst, Barclays: Hey, good morning. Thanks for all the updates. I just wanted to, I wanted to kinda hit, OBDD, but more specifically, I guess, the treasury order that’s coming in, the next few weeks here. You know, it seems like your appetite, for renewable build out is unchanged now that we’re on the other side of this. But just if the window for safe harbor is shortened, just how do you kind of see that affecting your plan?

And I know that you did a lot of safe harbor on the original 45, so I just wanted to kinda confirm that you don’t really see an impact, on any outcome. But I’ll let you talk. Thank you.

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Hey, Nick. Yeah. Kind of a a lot wrapped up in in that in that question. So if I don’t hit on all of it, just, remind me of the pieces that you want me to hit on. I I think, you know, stepping back, you know, we’re when we look at our $45,000,000,000 base plan, you know, we’ve taken steps as you’d expect us to start physical construction on a number of projects last year, start a physical construction on projects this year in the first half.

So we feel very good about our $45,000,000,000 base plan plus a $15,000,000,000 plus line of sight projects that we have. So we feel good at delivering those projects for our customers and having them in a good place from a start up start up construction or physical work perspective. So overall, in a good place. And I think about the treasury guidance, you know, from our perspective, the statutory language is beginning construction, and that term has been defined for a long time. But, you know, we’ve been engaged in DC along with our industry partners, and I think we do expect something to come out here by mid August.

Not going to opine on what that might be, but, you know, as we look at it, we’re continuing to start physical work on the projects, and we value that guidance as it comes up. But overall, we feel really well positioned with where we are today and the generation needs, for our cost to serve our customers.

Nicholas Campanella, Analyst, Barclays: Okay. Thank you for that. And then just with the $15,000,000,000 of CapEx upside becoming more of a reality now, just that should put pressure higher on rate based growth. Your cash flow profile is already improving from the investments you’re making today. And then you kind of talked about the depreciation benefits with OBBB, and, we should have sales growth later in the plan as well.

So just as we kind of think about getting further out in the plan, how should EPS growth kind of track against rate based growth? Should we be kind of expecting similar types of equity issuance, or is that kind of improving in your view?

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: If I if I think about it, you know, I’ll take that in in a couple different ways. You know, again, really excited about the the growth prospects, and delivering for our customers here, as we see the demand growth increase. From an equity perspective, no, we’ve always been managing a strong balance sheet. We do a balanced mix of debt and equity. Now if you look at our earnings release in Q, we issued over $1,000,000,000 of equity via ATM in Q2.

And so that really our base plan at $4,500,000,000 of equity, and we already accomplished $2,500,000,000 between before late last year and this ATM issuance. So we’re in a really good place, and we’ll continue to do that. We do see the incremental capital, as you’ve always said, coming with a balanced mix of of debt and equity. And roughly, you know, rule of thumb we’ve always given is that 40% equity, and we view that ATM as our plan to be. But we’ll also look at other products, mandatories, converts as as our equity needs to grow to fund our accretive growth.

As I think about that translating from rate based growth to EPS growth, obviously, we’ll provide a holistic update in q three around our new five year capital plan, our incremental pipeline, our sales growth, rate based growth. And, you know, even what we said last year when we moved to six to eight, we talked about being above the high end at times, and and I think that’s a good way to think about it.

Nicholas Campanella, Analyst, Barclays: Okay. Very fair. And just one last one, on Marshall. I know that trial will be in September. I think mediation deadline, was was today, but just is is settlement, of of that fully off the table for now, or is there still an opportunity to do that, in into trial and just taking your temperature there?

Thanks.

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Yeah. Hey, Nick. It’s Bob. Thanks for the question. Look.

So technically, the court order mediation concluded at the July, but that doesn’t mean the parties don’t continue to talk. You know, as we step back and think about the trial broadly and the fire broadly, we continue to maintain that our equipment didn’t start the second ignition in the wildfire. We’re prepared to go to court, as Brian indicated in his prepared remarks, at the September, and that trial is likely to last through middle to late November. Between now and then, you’re probably going to see some filings back and forth from, plaintiffs and us around pretrial briefs and things like that. But we’re planning to go trial.

We’re always open to settlement discussions, so we have to start with the idea that our equipment didn’t cause that second ignition. We maintain that.

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Very good. Thank you.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you very much, sir. Next question will be coming from Jeremy Tonet of JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Jeremy Tonet, Analyst, JPMorgan: Hi, good morning.

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Hey, Jeremy.

Jeremy Tonet, Analyst, JPMorgan: I was just wondering if we could turn to the competitive transmission opportunities. How you think about incorporating them into your plan? Do you probability weight the, chance of winning contracts here? Or do you include them kind of on a binary basis?

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Hey, I can speak broadly about it. We don’t include them in our capital plan, unless they’re one, and we’re very disciplined on the competitive side. You don’t see us bidding on projects generally outside of our service territory. So pretty disciplined. I mean, we look at all of our growth capital that we have within our service territories, the transmission we need to build in SPP, MISO, longer term Colorado and all the generation.

Don’t expect us to be chasing competitively bid transmission projects kind of outside of our service areas.

Jeremy Tonet, Analyst, JPMorgan: Got it. Understood. Thanks. And just want to, I guess, turn to the data centers a little bit more. What is your contracting progress on the base data center assumption here?

And can you provide any more color on the counterparty type, long term ramp for the portion of your base forecast currently contracted?

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Hey, Jeremy, let me start. It’s Bob, and then I’ll kick it over to Brian. As a company, we’re very excited about the opportunity to serve this type of critical infrastructure. We have about 1.1 gigawatts of data centers under construction and under contract. And our plan is for, by the balance of the year, to hit another sort of gig of data centers, ultimately hitting about 2.5 by 2030 time frame.

And then we’ve got a really robust pipeline behind that high quality stuff that we’re working on right now of seven or so gigs that I would talk about as maybe tier two opportunities. And then there’s even tier three and beyond stuff, beyond that total. So, really excited. As I sit and think about our business, we have interest in in all parts of our three operating areas, the Upper Midwest, Colorado, and the Desert Southwest. And for different reasons, each of those regions are very attractive to our data center counterparts, either whether you’re hyperscaler or a data center developer.

With specific contract stuff, I’ll kick it over to Brian, tell him of the ramp profile. But big picture, I think we see this as real growth opportunity, a real opportunity to, you know, grow sales on our system, bring rates down for all of our customers, and be beneficial for both hyperscalers as well as our existing customer base.

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Yeah. And and just to add a little bit of color, you know, we talked about we continue to make really good progress in the s e ESA negotiations with those, counterparties. We talked about, one in Minnesota, one in Wisconsin, one in Colorado. A couple of them are your you know, what you expect to your your hyperscalers, and we continue to make progress. And then that’s when I think about progress, they have their system impact studies, facility studies, land, and now we’re on to actually the terms of the agreement and discussing that.

We also had a new opportunity, pop up in Texas and Amarillo, that we’re working on. But, again, we don’t don’t expect us to update our our data center slide every quarter. Our pipeline is robust, as Bob mentioned. We continue to see inbounds and looking forward to executing on the agreements we talked about for the balance of the year bring that forward.

Jeremy Tonet, Analyst, JPMorgan: Got it. Very helpful there. Thanks. And just a quick last one if I could. If you could speak a bit more on the gain on debt repurchases there.

And was this contemplated with the plan or any other color there?

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Yeah, Jeremy. No. It wasn’t part of our our plan. What we saw is we use it opportunistic. It’s a great tool.

When you think about we saw some headwinds in our venture capital investments related to clean energy, and you you know this is a a challenging market for clean energy. And so you saw some negative mark to markets this year in the first half, and we just use that on top of that to offset that. So not an earnings driver at all.

George, Conference Coordinator: Next question will be coming from Julien Smith of Jefferies. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Julien Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: Hey. Good morning, team. Can you guys hear me okay?

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Perfect, j perfect, Julian.

Julien Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: There we go. Excellent. Hey. You know, Bob, let me let me ask you this. I mean, you you say at times, you know, we can do the math.

But if I heard you right earlier in the call, I mean, it seems like you might actually be doing the math for us here at least as it pertains to the the the third quarter update. I mean, are you guys actually gonna refresh the full suite of guidance in a more formal way with that roll forward?

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Yeah. So I think, as always, our third quarter update has a full and comprehensive update on all the assumptions, whether it’s sales or capital deployment, rate based growth, earnings growth, financing needs, etcetera. And we plan to do a full roll forward on the third quarter call.

Julien Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: All right. Thanks for clarifying that. And then just going back to the your ROEs and the PSGO backdrop, obviously, you got distribution rider, etcetera. How do you think about the improvement in earned returns there just a little bit? Again, that might be one of the disintermediating factors between rate base and earnings here, at least one of the bigger factors in the medium term.

How are you feeling about that prospects, etcetera, just given the seven, eight?

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Yeah. Julian, I can take that one. Yeah. You’re talking a rolling twelve month average of 70 7.8%. You know, the distribution rider is is been a good mechanism.

You know, we have a lot of investments on distribution system to deliver for our customers, both from a resiliency perspective and a growing capacity perspective. So and that rider this year had was capped. So it’s kind of partially implemented this year than full implementation next year. That 7.8%, we do expect improvement through balance of the year and then continued improvement next year. And so we are working on that, and the distribution rider once fully implemented should help address some of that next year.

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Yes. Also think Brian mentioned in his prepared remarks, we’re looking at potential cases in Colorado at the end of the year. And that’s a composite ROE. And so we’ve done a lot of work to improve the electric electric side of that ROE and the gas still has lag in some of its mechanisms. If you think about the preponderance of the capital in that company going forward, it’s largely electric.

And as Brian mentioned, whether it’s a distribution rider, a renewable energy rider, a transmission rider or a new rate case, expect the certainly the electric side of that ROE to continue to improve.

Julien Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: Got it. Excellent. And and sort of, I don’t mean to press too much on this, but given what you have here already and I know I know we can do the

George, Conference Coordinator: math, but just to verify,

Julien Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: I mean, it does seem like a low teens rate base CAGR, which admittedly wouldn’t be all that different from your your your, shall we say, regional peers necessarily. Curious if if you wanna verify that.

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Uh-huh. I mean, they we did kinda give you that rule of thumb of 25 bits of rate base or twenty twenty five bits of rate base equals roughly incremental billion dollars of capital. So, yeah, you’re you’re doing the math correctly. Now we do we’ll roll forward off higher base for 2026 to 2030 rate based guidance as we always do, but you are correct, and we believe we have one of the best growth prospects in the industry. And we’re gonna deliver these projects for our customers.

Right? We’re really focused on reliable and affordable and clean energy for our customers, and so we have a lot of investments ahead of ahead of us to deliver on that. Awesome. Alright. Best of luck, guys.

Talk soon.

Steve Fleishman, Analyst, Wolfe Research: What happened?

Rupesh Agrawal, Vice President, Investor Relations, Xcel Energy: Oh, yeah. So the next question is coming from Steve Fleishman, Wolfe Research. I think we lost our operator.

Steve Fleishman, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Oh, well, that might be me. So I I thought I lost the call.

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: No, Steve. We can hear you. Thanks. Okay, great.

Steve Fleishman, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Thanks for the time. So just a follow-up on the question regarding the kind of OBB and executive orders. How do we need to be concerned at all about kind of federal land issue with respect to your kind of renewable projects?

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Yeah. Hey, Steve. I can take that one. We don’t have any projects on federal land. Just make it easy an easy answer.

Steve Fleishman, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Okay. I like easy answers. Thank you. And then on the going back to the also the topic of the Marshall Fire, Bob, you mentioned the you you kind of don’t think you caused a second ignition. I think your slides also continue to show that a lot of the damage was already kinda happening from the first ignition.

I I assume that remains part of your court case as well.

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Yeah. Absolutely, Steve. So when I think about the trial broadly, you know, I think the sheriff report identifies that the start of the fire was on property owned by the 12 tribes. That first ignition, was subject to almost 100 mile an hour winds for over an hour and twenty minutes, causing a fire spread theory, where we see propagation of that fire into the the towns of of of in in Colorado. And then, obviously, at some point, there’s a purported second ignition.

And so we we believe that, again, on a on a trial basis, you know, that we have to have been found to have started a second edition, that we were negligent in the maintenance of our maintenance and operations of our lines. And then we get into sort of joint and several or not joint and several liability on the call. So it’s sort of our proportion damages based on causality. So, again, we feel very good about the facts and circumstances of our trial and are prepared to go there.

Steve Fleishman, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Okay. And then and then there is still an opportunity to kind of settle if you deem that it makes sense.

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Sure. There’s no there’s no prevention from a settlement proposal. We’ve got probably two months before the trial begins, and you could settle even during the pendency of the trial. So there’s there’s lots of opportunity there. But, we feel very good about our facts, and and we’re prepared to go to trial.

George, Conference Coordinator: We’ll now move to Sofia Karp of KeyBanc.

Sofia Karp, Analyst, KeyBanc: Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I have a follow-up on the trial. Just could you remind us if there was any sort of range of estimate on the damages? I know that, ultimately, that will be decided at the second trial, but what are the estimates that are currently being contemplated?

Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Xcel Energy: Yeah. Hey, Sophie. It’s Bob. I think you got it right. The structure of the trial is such that we look at liability in the first trial and in the second trial would be any damages if we get that far.

We don’t have an aggregate estimate of damage claims. What we do believe is that from the insurance companies, there was about $2,000,000,000 worth of property damage that they paid off in their claim process.

Sofia Karp, Analyst, KeyBanc: Got it. Got it. Thank you. And then my second question is, just kind of broadly speaking, you have a lot of growth opportunities ahead of you. Right?

And you you’re going to presumably have some equity needs for those. And given that your evaluation does not reflect those growth opportunities right now, in my opinion, at least, right, have you explored or are you likely to explore alternatives to equity rate this, such as maybe selling of some of the non core assets or assets you deem less core to your electric operation? Like, how should we think about that?

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Hey, Sophie. I can take that. You know, I I commented a little bit before in terms of of ATM is our plan to be, but we’ll look in that mandatory and converts. We have a strong balance sheet, and we’re comfortable issuing equity to fund that accretive growth. Now I’ve been on record.

We’ve been on record that we’re not all that interested in minority interest sales. And if we think about you know, we we view our assets as core. And if we were ever to do anything, it would be for strategic reasons not to to fund our investments that we need to make, and we’ve been disciplined for the past twenty years on the strategic side.

Sofia Karp, Analyst, KeyBanc: Got it. Thank you so much. That’s all for me.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you very much, ma’am. We’ll now move to Paul Patterson of Glenrock Associates. Please go ahead.

Julien Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: Good morning. Can you hear me?

Rupesh Agrawal, Vice President, Investor Relations, Xcel Energy: You’re breaking up again. So next question is Paul Patterson with Glenrock Associates. Hello? Can you hear me?

George, Conference Coordinator: Yes, Your line is open, sir. Sir, your line was open. Okay, gentlemen. She appeared and did not hear us. Right now, we do not have any further questions.

I’ll turn the call over to Mr. Van Able for any additional closing remarks.

Brian Van Able, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Xcel Energy: Thank you all for participating in our earnings call this morning. Please contact our Investor Relations team with any follow-up questions.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today’s conference. You may now disconnect. Have a good day, and goodbye.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.