AEP Raises Five-Year Capital Plan 30% to $100 Billion on Data Center Demand

American Electric Power said on its third-quarter 2026 earnings call, held October 28, 2026, that it is raising its five-year capital investment plan by 30% to $100 billion through 2031, up from the $78 billion plan it set out earlier this year, as contracted demand from data centers continues to outpace the output of its existing power fleet.

Where the extra money is going

Generation spending rises to $20 billion, up from $13 billion, with utilities also budgeting $8 billion for renewables over the same period; AEP has about 9 GW of gas-fired generation planned through 2032. Transmission spending climbs to $37 billion from $33 billion. AEP said the buildout should support compound rate base growth of 13% over five years, up from an 11% trajectory previously, and operating earnings growth of 9% to 11% annually from 2027 through 2031.

A data center campus driving the biggest single project

AEP’s contracted large load backed by customer agreements rose to 84 GW through 2031, up 22% from 69 GW the prior quarter, with the single biggest driver a 10.4 GW data center campus in Ohio being developed by SB Energy. To serve it, AEP plans roughly $5 billion of transmission investment at Piketon, Ohio, for three 765-kilovolt lines each carrying about 3.2 GW, with SoftBank and its affiliates covering the cost. The company also has 14.4 GW of additional generation requests from its utilities under active review.

A separate bet on gas-free generation: fuel cells for Google

AEP is also budgeting about $4 billion for a 702-megawatt fuel cell project in Wyoming supplied by Bloom Energy, underpinned by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Google and expected online in 2028. CFO Trevor Mihalik said “contracted customer demand is growing faster than the operating output of our existing fleet,” summing up the pressure behind the expanded plan. CEO William Fehrman said AEP is weighing generating-company, or “genco,” structures to serve large loads in states including West Virginia and Indiana, should that model prove viable.

Third straight upward revision this year

AEP has now raised its five-year capital plan three times in 2026: from $54 billion to $72 billion in October 2025, to $78 billion in the first quarter of 2026, and now to $100 billion alongside third-quarter results. The company also raised its 2026 operating earnings guidance to at or above the high end of its $6.25-to-$6.55-per-share range.

Part of a utility-wide response to data center demand

AEP’s jump follows a similar pattern at other U.S. utilities grappling with data-center-driven load growth, including CenterPoint Energy’s recent increase of its own 10-year capital plan to $70.7 billion and the federal government’s own response, such as the Department of Energy’s $10.1 billion loan commitment to Constellation and Alliant for nuclear uprates and new gas capacity. It also builds on AEP’s own deal for up to 1.6 GW of Mainspring linear generators worth up to $4 billion, announced earlier this month.

Sources

• American Electric Power, third-quarter 2026 earnings release and SEC Form 8-K filing, October 28, 2026 — for the $100 billion capital plan, segment breakdowns, rate base growth guidance and executive quotes.
• Utility Dive, “AEP increases investment plan 30% to $100B on gen, transmission spending,” October 29, 2026 — for additional detail on the Piketon transmission project, the Wyoming fuel cell project and prior capital plan figures.

Illustrative image. Photo: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source