In its latest earnings call, US utility Xcel Energy has announced plans to invest more than $45 billion in new generation, transmission, and other projects over the next five years.

The capital investment plan will focus primarily on clean energy, customer electrification, new load growth, and safety and reliability.

Transmission and distribution upgrades will claim 63 percent of the total funding, with renewable energy and new generation representing 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

This massive investment has been significantly driven by the growth of the data center industry in its coverage area, with the company reporting that it had received 8.9GW of requests from data centers.

Xcel Energy has signed several deals with hyperscalers over 2024. In March, it announced an agreement with Meta to develop an enterprise data center with a predicted initial load of 10MW, expanding to 75MW by the end of the first decade in service in Minnesota.

Xcel expects to secure just 25 percent of the projects in its data center pipeline over the next five years, leaving room for growth into the 2030s.

However, data centers will represent only half of the projected growth in sales, with the electrification of oil and gas production in the Permian Basin and increased adoption of electric vehicles and other consumer products making up the remaining projected growth.

Minnesota-based Xcel Energy serves eight states: Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and New Mexico. It has previously worked to sell land near its existing power stations to several hyperscalers, including Microsoft.