The grid just got a bigger wallet
RRA’s latest read on U.S. energy utilities basically says: “Get ready, because the bill is getting much larger.” The firm now sees about $1.3 trillion in aggregate capital expenditures across U.S. utilities between 2026 and 2030.
That’s not pocket change. It’s a full-on infrastructure mall-spree, and investors tend to notice when utilities start acting less like sleepy income stocks and more like capital-hungry project machines.
Why this matters
The updated 2026 capex forecast is up roughly 29% from around $200 billion spent in 2025, which hints that the spending wave isn’t a one-off. Utilities are staring at rising electricity demand, grid upgrades, and the kind of buildout that usually benefits companies selling transformers, cables, switchgear, and everything else that keeps electrons from going rogue.
In other words, the power grid is getting a makeover — and it’s not the cheap kind.
What investors should watch
A forecast like this can ripple through a few corners of the market:
- Utility names may keep leaning on rate-base growth to justify bigger spending plans.
- Industrial suppliers could see longer backlogs if this capex wave turns into real orders.
- Power-demand plays may get another boost if the market keeps betting the U.S. needs more generation and transmission, fast.
Big picture
The headline here isn’t just “utilities are spending more.” It’s that the U.S. power system may be entering a years-long capex cycle, and cycles like that have a habit of creating winners far outside the utility sector itself. If the forecast holds, the real story is who gets paid to build the future grid.