stockrowWhat it does
Duke Energy is an energy company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It operates primarily through regulated utility subsidiaries, including Duke Energy Carolinas, Duke Energy Progress, Duke Energy Florida, Duke Energy Ohio, Duke Energy Indiana and Piedmont. Harry K. Sideris is President and Chief Executive Officer.
The company’s principal business is providing electricity and natural gas under state and federal utility regulation. Its electric utilities generate or buy power, move it over high-voltage transmission networks, distribute it through local wires, and sell it to homes, businesses, industrial facilities, municipalities and other power providers. Its gas utilities transport and distribute natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial and power-generation customers.
Electric Utilities and Infrastructure is the larger operation. It provides retail electric service to approximately 8.7 million customers in the Southeast and Midwest, while also making wholesale electricity sales. The electric system includes generation capacity, transmission lines and local distribution networks. Gas Utilities and Infrastructure operates regulated natural-gas networks in the Carolinas, Ohio and Kentucky following the sale of Piedmont’s Tennessee business.
The company owns or partly owns generation facilities fueled principally by natural gas, nuclear fuel and coal, supplemented by hydroelectric and solar generation and purchased power. Its utilities must maintain service through changing weather and demand conditions, including peak electricity use during summer and winter.
How it makes money
Duke Energy earns most of its revenue through regulated electric and gas utility operations. State utility commissions approve retail rates designed to recover the cost of service and provide a reasonable return on invested capital. Federal regulation also governs certain wholesale electricity and transmission rates. This model means the company generally earns a return on approved infrastructure investment rather than on changes in the commodity price of electricity or natural gas.
Electric Utilities and Infrastructure is the main earnings and revenue base. It owns and operates facilities used to generate, transmit, distribute and sell electricity. In most of its territories, it is the sole retail electricity supplier; Ohio has a competitive generation-supply market. In Ohio, Duke Energy earns retail margin on transmission and distribution, but not on the underlying electricity commodity purchased through auctions.
Gas Utilities and Infrastructure owns and operates gas transportation and distribution facilities. It earns retail margin on moving gas through its system, not on the commodity cost of gas itself. Its regulated rates are intended to recover operating costs and provide a return on invested capital. Fuel and certain purchased-power costs can generally be recovered through regulatory cost-recovery clauses, subject to commission review of prudence.
In FY2025, Electric Utilities and Infrastructure revenue was $28.9 billion and Gas Utilities and Infrastructure revenue was $2.9 billion; in Q2 2026, reported EPS was $1.38 and adjusted EPS was $1.43. Electric Utilities and Infrastructure represented 90.9% of FY2025 revenue, while Gas Utilities and Infrastructure represented 8.98%. Revenue and cash flow are seasonal because electricity demand is usually higher in summer and winter.
| Segment | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric Utilities and Infrastructure | $28.9 billion | 90.9% | 3.94% |
| Gas Utilities and Infrastructure | $2.9 billion | 8.98% | 27.1% |
| Other | $28.0 million | 0.09% | −26.3% |
Customers and how it sells
Duke Energy’s electric utilities serve approximately 8.7 million retail customers across a service territory of about 90,000 square miles in six states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. The territory has an estimated population of 27 million. Retail customers include residential households, commercial businesses and industrial users, while wholesale customers include municipalities, electric cooperatives and other load-serving entities.
Customer mix varies by utility. Residential and commercial customers account for much of billed electricity demand, while industrial customers are important in several territories. The company reported that weather-normal electricity sales grew in 2025, primarily because of residential customer growth and commercial demand, including data-center usage. It also reported that industrial sales remained soft amid broader weakness, some manufacturing closures and high interest rates.
Its gas business serves residential, commercial, industrial and power-generation customers. Before the Tennessee sale, it had about 1.8 million total gas customers, including customers in the Carolinas, Tennessee, southwestern Ohio and northern Kentucky. Management said on the Q2 2026 call that the Tennessee business had been sold to Spire for $2.5 billion.
Large-load customers are becoming more relevant to system planning. Management said on the Q2 2026 call that it had secured 7.8 gigawatts of electric-service agreements with data-center customers. These agreements include minimum-take provisions, which the company uses as a basis for its revenue-growth projections.
| Segment | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric Utilities and Infrastructure | $28.9 billion | 90.9% | 3.94% |
| Gas Utilities and Infrastructure | $2.9 billion | 8.98% | 27.1% |
| Other | $28.0 million | 0.09% | −26.3% |
Suppliers and costs
Duke Energy’s principal electric-generation fuels are natural gas, nuclear fuel and coal. In 2025, natural gas and fuel oil supplied 33.5% of generation, nuclear supplied 27.5%, and coal supplied 14.5%; purchased power and net interchange supplied 22.5% of total energy sources.
Natural gas and fuel oil are purchased from various suppliers, including Piedmont, under standard industry agreements. The company uses firm pipeline transportation and storage agreements, as well as shorter-term transportation when needed. Management said on the Q2 2026 call that it had secured the gas supply needed through the early 2030s and was working with vendors on supply beyond that period.
Nuclear fuel procurement relies on long-term contracts diversified by supplier, country of origin and pricing. Fuel fabrication is generally sourced from a single domestic supplier on a plant-by-plant basis because changing fabrication suppliers is technically complex. Coal comes through long-term contracts and spot purchases, with contract expiry dates varying by utility.
Major costs also include operations and maintenance, depreciation, interest expense, property taxes, storm restoration, environmental compliance and construction spending. The company can seek regulatory recovery for many fuel, purchased-power and approved infrastructure costs, but timing differences can affect cash flow.
- Revenue$32.2B
- Cost of revenue−$9.0B
- Selling, general and administrative−$8.3B
- Other operating costs−$6.3B
- Operating income$8.6B
Competitive position
Duke Energy’s regulated electric utilities are generally the sole supplier of electricity within their service territories. Ohio is the exception, where generation supply is competitive and the company conducts electricity-supply auctions. The company also competes with other utilities and merchant generators for wholesale power sales, municipal and cooperative sales, and other wholesale transactions. Capacity availability, reliability and price are principal factors in those markets.
In regulated electric distribution, competition comes primarily from customer-owned and distributed energy resources, including on-site commercial or industrial generation and private solar at homes and businesses. These alternatives can reduce demand served through Duke Energy’s network. Natural-gas distribution competes with electricity, propane, fuel oil, renewable-energy providers, coal and nuclear energy for heating, cooking, water heating, industrial use and power generation. Relative energy prices, efficiency, reliability, safety and customer perceptions can influence those choices.
No individual competing company is identified in the available business description. Duke Energy does identify GE Vernova as a gas-turbine supplier and Zachry as an engineering, procurement and construction provider, rather than as competitors.
Our reading: Exclusive retail service territories, commission-approved rates and cost-recovery mechanisms provide a strong moat in the regulated electric and gas networks, because new suppliers generally cannot duplicate the local network and immediately serve the same captive territory.
Our reading: That protection is narrower in Ohio generation supply and wholesale power, where auctions, merchant generators and alternative energy sources create direct competitive pressure.
Growth opportunities
Duke Energy’s growth plan centers on customer growth, large new electricity loads, grid modernization and generation investment. The company expects retail customer numbers to increase over time. It links long-term commercial and industrial demand growth to economic development, continued migration into its service territories, electrification, domestic industrial activity and data centers.
Management said on the Q2 2026 call that the company had secured 7.8 gigawatts of electric-service agreements with data-center customers and had a 15.4-gigawatt late-stage, high-confidence large-load pipeline including signed agreements. It expects the remaining pipeline to be converted to electric-service agreements by the first half of 2027. It expects customers under signed agreements to begin taking energy as early as the second half of 2027 and to ramp to full contracted load through the early 2030s.
The company is building generation and related infrastructure to serve this demand. Management said on the Q2 2026 call that Duke Energy was on track to add 15 gigawatts of capacity by 2031. Its gas portfolio had approximately five gigawatts under construction and another 2.5 gigawatts advancing through development. It increased the gas turbines available under its framework agreement with GE Vernova to 26.
The company is also upgrading existing nuclear units by about 300 megawatts and seeking additional 20-year operating-license extensions. It is evaluating new nuclear options but says it will not proceed until it has a plan to offset financial and cost-overrun risks for customers and investors. Management said additional large-load projects could require $5 to $10 billion of additional capital investment within the current five-year plan, particularly in Indiana and Florida.
- $24.6BFY2021
- $28.8BFY2022
- $29.1BFY2023
- $30.4BFY2024
- $32.2BFY2025
Structural risks
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Regulated revenues and earnings depend on state legislation and regulation. Commission decisions can limit the company’s ability to recover spending on generation, electric and gas transmission, distribution and related activities.
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Duke Energy must finance a large capital program through operating cash flow, debt and equity markets. It relies on short-term borrowing and longer-term debt and equity access to fund capital requirements and liquidity needs. Higher interest expense already reduced Q2 EPS by $0.04.
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Electricity and gas demand, generation economics and wholesale prices can be affected by extreme weather, storms, drought, economic conditions, customer usage, energy efficiency and customer-owned generation. Weather also affects the timing of revenue, cash flow and planned maintenance.
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Fuel procurement, transportation constraints and purchased-power availability can affect operations and costs. The company depends on natural gas, nuclear fuel, coal and purchased power, while its operations and capital projects are exposed to supply-chain disruption, inflation, tariffs and export restrictions.
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Nuclear operations carry potential substantial costs and liabilities, including plant modifications, life-extension spending, decommissioning, spent-fuel storage and uncertainty over permanent disposal capacity. The federal government has not developed a disposal facility or disposal capacity for spent fuel.
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Construction of new generation, transmission and other infrastructure requires regulatory approvals, labor, equipment and execution discipline. New nuclear construction also involves technology, supply-chain, workforce and cost-overrun risks.
Bottom line
Our reading
Our reading: Duke Energy is primarily a regulated network utility: it owns electricity and natural-gas infrastructure, earns commission-approved returns on investment, and serves large retail customer bases across six states. Its principal operating exposure is the execution and regulatory recovery of a growing generation and grid program, rather than commodity trading. Large-load and data-center agreements could increase demand, while financing, construction, fuel availability, weather and nuclear obligations remain material constraints.