Sempra Energy (Sempra), an electricity and natural gas company based in California, unveiled a $56 billion five-year capital plan, and their intent to open an early rate case for Texas subsidiary Oncor to finance this plan. This record capital plan is 16 per cent larger than the company’s prior five-year plan. It was announced during the company’s quarterly earnings call on February 25, 2025.
The company’s infrastructure investments are distributed across its core businesses: Sempra California, Sempra Texas, and Sempra Infrastructure, all of which are positioned to meet the increasing demand for energy and the global shift towards cleaner energy sources.
Oncor witnessed new interconnection requests increase 27 per cent in 2024, driven primarily by large commercial and industrial customers with under a quarter of these new requests coming from data centers. The company expects to see its peak load grow from 31 GW to 36 GW by 2031, prompting a need for $36 billion in capital investments in Texas to keep pace with demand — a 50 per cent increase in capital investment over the utility’s previous five-year plan released in February 2024. Of the $36 billion plan, 60 per cent would go towards transmission projects, including the Permian Basin Reliability Plan, the Delaware Basin Load Integration Plan, and the West Texas infrastructure plan. Other spending would cover distribution and reliability upgrades. Earlier in August 2024, Sempra Energy had reported a $48 billion five-year capital expenditure (capex) plan, which is focused on building modern, reliable, and sustainable energy networks.