Utility Public Service Enterprise raises its spending plan and forecasts a higher profit in 2025

Public Service Enterprise Group, a U.S. electric utility and gas company, forecasted a higher profit in 2025 compared to the previous year and increased its five-year plan for capital expenditures.

Utilities are experiencing a surge in power demand as Big Tech invests billions of dollars in developing artificial intelligence technology and infrastructure to support it.

PSEG expects to spend between $22,5 billion and $26 billion in the five years from 2025 to 2029. This is an increase of $3 billion over its previous plan.

The company expects to maintain its long-term compound annual growth rate of adjusted earnings at 5% - 7% until 2029 with the updated capital expenditure plan.

PSEG and its peers have added tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars to their spending plans in order to build new power supplies, and strengthen the grid. This is because data centers and cloud computing are driving up energy consumption.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), power consumption is expected to hit record highs by 2025.

PSEG's current-year adjusted profits are expected to range between $3.94 and $4.06% per share. This is about 9% more than 2024 earnings.

About 4.3 million New Jersey customers receive electric and gas service from the company. The company also manages nuclear-generating assets via its PSEG Power division.

According to LSEG data, the Newark, New Jersey based company reported an adjusted profit per share of 84 cents for the three-month period ended December 31. This compares with analysts' estimates of 83 cents.

The company's shares rose by 1.6% during premarket trading. Reporting by Vallari Shrivastava, Bengaluru. Editing by Shilpa Majumdar.

(source: Reuters)