Eversource Energy executives have added about $2 billion to their rolling five-year capital investments plan, with electric transmission and distribution projects in line to receive an additional $923 million and $601 million, respectively, compared to forecasts of a year ago.
Speaking after they reported Eversource’s fourth-quarter results, Chairman, President and CEO Joe Nolan and CFO John Moreira outlined their new plan, which projects a total of $24.2 billion in spending between now and the end of 2029. Excluding Eversource’s natural gas business, the plan envisions about $6.8 billion in transmission work and $10.3 billion for distribution projects, with spending in both categories peaking in 2026. A year ago and in framing their 2024-2028 window, executives’ forecasts expected those figures to be $5.8 billion and $9.7 billion, respectively.
“We have tremendous growth opportunities ahead of us, both in replacing […] aging infrastructure to make our system more resilient as well as building new substations and other infrastructure needs […] to address increasing load demand,” Nolan said on a Feb. 12 conference call with analysts and investors.
Moreira pointed out that Eversource’s leaders see opportunities to increase the company’s investments through 2029 by another $1.5 billion to $2 billion if various projects and funding programs generate additional growth. As things stand, the $24.2 billion plan translates into an annual rate base growth rate of 8%.
Including the caveat that other projects are being developed for late this decade, Eversource’s transmission capex forecast through 2029 breaks down like this by state:
- Massachusetts: $3.6 billion, which is backloaded by a combined $1.7 billion slated for 2028 and 2029. Moreira said the state’s approval of the Electric Sector Modernization Plan last summer has allowed Eversource to dedicate more capital there, a trend he said executives expect will continue into the 2030s.
- Connecticut: About $1.8 billion that, in contrast to Massachusetts, trails off in the later years of the plan. In his conference call comments, Nolan—who has clashed with the state’s regulators—drily said that, “with a stable regulatory environment, we can maintain and even increase infrastructure investments” there.
- New Hampshire: Nearly $1.4 billion, with about $530 million of that penciled in for 2028 and 2029
Also discussed on the call were two Massachusetts projects of note, the Greater Cambridge Energy Program and the recent purchase of 26 acres from Constellation Energy. The Cambridge project is a 35,000-square-foot substation that will be located 105 feet below a new park and will be the first fully underground facility of its kind in the country. Eversource is partnering with Boston Properties and local officials on the $1.8 billion project.
The former Constellation property is part of the retired Mystic Generating Station and sits in Everett, just north of downtown Boston and adjacent to an existing Eversource substation. Moreira said Eversource’s planning group are mulling over possible development opportunities and also pointed out that the nearby substation will need upgrades at some point.
“It gives us tremendous flexibility from a strategic location—not just for Massachusetts, but for New England,” Moreira said. “We’ll have to see as these opportunities come about as to what that would entail. It could materialize within this forecast period, but likely more beyond.”
On the earnings front: In the last three months of 2024, Eversource generated net profits of $72.5 million on operating revenues of $2.97 billion. In the same period of a year earlier, those numbers were a loss of nearly $1.3 billion—caused primarily by the company needing to book a nearly $1.8 billion loss on its offshore wind investments—and $2.69 billion. Adjusted earnings rose about 6%.
Shares of Eversource (Ticker: ES) fell nearly 3% to $59.72 on the heels of executives’ earnings report and conference call. Over the past six months, they have given up about 8% of their value, which has trimmed Eversource’s market capitalization to nearly $22 billion.
