Duke Energy Corp plans to spend $65 billion over the next five years with most of it going to pay for the U.S. energy company’s transition to low-carbon energy sources, the company’s CFO Brian Savoy told Reuters on Wednesday.
Savoy, who was at the Reuters Global Energy Transition conference on Wednesday, said the North Carolina-based company expects to spend about 55% on the power grid with much of the rest funneled toward renewable electricity generation.
“Reliability and affordability are the two pillars that govern our decarbonization strategy,” Savoy said.
Duke expects to reduce carbon emissions by more than 50% by 2030 and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Duke’s power and gas utilities serve about 10 million homes and businesses in the Carolinas, parts of Florida and the Midwest, and it owns about 50,000 megawatts (MW) of energy capacity.
Large U.S. electric utilities are broadly moving from fossil fuel-powered generation to cleaner sources like wind and solar to meet climate goals, and requiring hefty capital spending to integrate the new power systems.
As part of Duke’s plan, Savoy said the company plans to retire all of its coal plants by 2035 when it will have about 30,000 MW of renewables like wind and solar, and about 10,000 MW of energy storage, like batteries.
To ensure the grid remains reliable during the transition to lower carbon sources of energy, Savoy said “We pressure-test each planned retirement to make sure we have adequate resources.”
The company currently has about 16,000 MW of coal-fired power plants.
