NextEra Energy becoming utility sector's biggest AI power play with billions committed to data center grid support.
NextEra Energy is America's biggest electric utility, providing reliable power to over 12 million people in Florida through its regulated utility FPL. Its energy resources business is also one of the country's largest developers of clean energy infrastructure. These leading businesses position the company to capitalize on growing demand for power from AI data centers.
Large power users such as data centers are increasingly signing power purchase agreements with electric utilities and competitive power producers to secure future electricity. Many data center developers are strategically building new facilities in Florida due to its favorable business climate and FPL's ability to meet their power needs. FPL currently has about 21 gigawatts of interest from large-load customers, such as hyperscale data centers seeking speed to market, reliability, and competitive power pricing. The company is in active discussions with 12 gigawatts of capacity that it believes it could start serving as soon as 2028. Few electric utilities have the scale and financial resources to support that level of near-term demand. For perspective, the five largest electric generation owners in the U.S., excluding NextEra, have between 37 and 56 gigawatts of operational capacity, compared to NextEra's 80 gigawatts.
NextEra's energy resources segment is also capitalizing on surging AI data center power demand. The company is bringing its Duane Arnold nuclear power plant back online to support Google's growing power needs, with the facility expected to be fully operational by early 2029. NextEra is also building new renewable energy, storage, and gas-fired power capacity to support other utilities and data center customers, including Google.
What sets NextEra apart is its data center hub strategy. Data center developers need not only substantial power but also speed, certainty, and scalability—strengths that align with NextEra's capabilities. The company is one of few that can support these customers with a full suite of solutions, including renewables and battery storage, gas-fired generation, and potentially nuclear capacity. NextEra is currently developing 30 potential data center hubs in the U.S., a number it anticipates will rise to 40 by year-end. The company's base case is developing 15 gigawatts of data center hubs by 2035, with an upside case of over 30 gigawatts. NextEra is working with Google to develop multiple data center campuses across the country and with ExxonMobil to develop a low-carbon, gas-fired data center power project.
NextEra has agreed to combine with Dominion Energy to create the world's largest regulated electric utility business. The combined company would be the global leader in renewables and battery storage, the top U.S. player in gas generation, and the country's second-largest nuclear energy producer. It would also be a leader in total U.S. power generation and annual capital spending. The combined entity would have over 130 gigawatts of large-load opportunities in its pipeline—more than double its current combined generation capacity of 110 gigawatts. That backlog would support more than 9 percent compound annual earnings-per-share growth through 2035, with expectations of extending that pace through at least 2032, accelerating from the more than 8 percent compound annual growth rate NextEra currently expects as a standalone company.