PowerLines’ review of 51 investor-owned utilities’ earnings calls suggests growing capital expenditures could become a major driver of future rate increase requests

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, PowerLines released Utility Spending is Rising: A Review of Utility Capital Expenditure Plans, a comprehensive review of 51 investor-owned utility earnings calls in recent months.

PowerLines found that investor-owned utilities are planning to spend at least $1.4 trillion over the next five years through 2030 on capital expenditures (CapEx)—a more than 21 percent increase over the $1.1 trillion over a five-year period outlined last year. Capital expenditures include expenses on physical assets such as power plants, transmission lines, and distribution poles and wires.

“Investor-owned utilities are signaling a record-breaking wave of capital spending, and history shows that those plans are often a leading indicator of future utility rate increase requests,” said Charles Hua, Founder and Executive Director of PowerLines. “Our century-old utility regulatory system has accelerated the size of the pie of utility capital spending, even when more cost-effective solutions that could lower consumers’ utility bills are available yet underdeployed. It is incumbent upon state policymakers and regulators to ensure utilities prioritize these solutions that improve the efficiency, affordability, and reliability of the grid.” 

This planned spending comes at a time when utility bills are rapidly rising. PowerLines analysis has shown that utility bills have increased approximately 40 percent since 2021, with no signs of slowing down. 

In 2025 alone, utilities requested $31 billion in rate increases, while electricity and gas became the fastest drivers of inflation. Most utilities expect high levels of capital spending to continue through 2030, a trend that promises to intensify growing affordability pressures.

While these proposed spending amounts do not necessarily equate on a one-to-one basis to rate increases, utility CapEx plans are often a leading indicator of incoming rate increase requests. These growing costs could become the key driver behind utility rate increase requests over the next five years.

“As utilities plan any infrastructure investments, it’s critical that regulators ensure costs are allocated fairly,” said Jenn Jones, Vice President of Financial Security and Livable Communities at AARP. “Consumers—especially older adults and households on fixed incomes—should not be asked to subsidize costs driven by large new industrial demands or private development decisions.”

“When we’ve looked under the hood at the justifications for utility capital expenditures, we’ve often found that utilities are overlooking cheaper alternatives that involve operating expenditures,” said Citizens Utility Board of Michigan Executive Director Amy Bandyk. “Regulators and intervenor groups need to take a close look at these utility plans for massive spending before they drastically worsen the electricity unaffordability problem for ratepayers.”

“Large industrial customers depend on affordable and reliable electricity, which is the backbone of our modern economy. With projections of significant load growth, utilities are seeking to ratchet up their spending precisely when electricity costs, a key input into the cost of doing business, are already rising,” said Karen Onaran, President & CEO of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council (ELCON). “Going forward, we urge regulators to demand transparent justification for these expenditures as well as a demonstration that utilities have explored lower cost options to ensure that spending is prudent, transparent, and in the interests of all customers. Getting this right matters not only for affordability but also for economic competitiveness and long-term growth.” 

“At a time of amped up concern about affordability and rate hikes well above inflation, utilities are seeing dollar signs for their future bottom lines from the unprecedented wave of new infrastructure investment,” said Tom Content, Executive Director of Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin. “Regulators and legislatures need to be squarely focused on policies that put affordability and fairness first for the folks paying the bills.”

PowerLines is a nonpartisan consumer education nonprofit organization that aims to modernize the utility regulatory system for American energy consumers to lower utility bills and grow the economy.