2025 Top Utilities: Making the Connections

Look at forecast power demand from the growing queue of data centers, megaplants and other major facility investment projects. Then load in the AI prompt “Construct a power generation and transmission system for our new plant, negotiate agreements, submit our project to all permitting and incentives programs, and build relationships with the community,” sit back and watch the wonders unfold.

What? Nothing’s happening?

Here, presented in alphabetical order within U.S. regions organized by highest number of Top Utilities, is the Class of 2025, representing best-in-class economic development performance.

PECO, an Exelon Company
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Glen Murphy, Senior Manager, Economic & Business Development
www.PECO.com

Corporate facility investment: $21.2 billion
Jobs created: 7,505
Population and territory: PECO serves a population of 4.1 million in the City of Philadelphia and four surrounding counties plus a portion of York County, Pennsylvania.

Highlights: Projects in the PECO portfolio last year included a $6 billion, 157-job data center campus from Green FIG in Frazer; a $430 million, 3,200-job office investment from Chubb in Philadelphia; a $575 million, 300-job project from Sparks Therapeutics in Philadelphia; and a $90 million, 60-job life sciences R&D investment from Amstergen in Warminster in Bucks County. “In 2024 we received 41 large load inquiries tied to new business growth,” writes Glen Murphy. “These requests ranged from 2 MW to 1,200 MW. In response, PECO developed and implemented a clear, customer-focused process to help developers and customers navigate infrastructure planning and utility service needs efficiently. This structured approach begins with early-stage engagement and a high-level review of the customer’s load request. From there, we coordinate an engineering feasibility assessment to determine the viability of service. Once feasibility is confirmed, we provide a detailed, collaborative design and infrastructure plan tailored to meet the unique requirements of each new project. This end-to-end process has proven highly effective in supporting new business development across our territory and delivering actionable next steps to customers within a condensed timeframe.”

Alabama Power Company
Birmingham, Alabama
Shane Kearney, Director, Economic & Community Development
www.amazingalabama.com

Corporate facility investment: $3.1 billion
Jobs created: 2,928
Population and territory: Over 86,000 miles of power lines serve 3.2 million people in the southern two-thirds of Alabama.

Highlights: Alabama Power’s Economic & Community Development (ECD) team continued to support the use of the state’s Site Evaluation and Economic Development Strategy (SEEDS) Act, which enhances Alabama’s competitiveness by addressing the need for development-ready sites and enabling more state resources to go to site development, improvement and acquisition. “In this round of funding 29 communities throughout the state were awarded $23.5 million in SEEDS grants,” writes Shane Kearney. “This was matched with $17.4 million in local funds for a total investment of $41 million toward site development, improvement and acquisition. Alabama Power’s ECD team continued the use of cutting-edge Geographic Information System (GIS) capabilities and drone technology to review and assess thousands of acres of land to identify potential sites — with identified sites receiving SEEDs funding. This process resulted in the establishment of new marketable sites for economic development.”

Among other highlights, the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator, with the help of Innovate AL, welcomed 12 startup teams from seven states and five foreign countries into its fifth cohort, resulting in four firms obtaining commercialization and pilot opportunities that have resulted in their commitment to remain in the state and grow their businesses in some capacity.

In January 2024, the Alabama Mobility and Power (AMP) Center moved into the newly completed Smart Communities and Innovation Building, where the AMP Center has engaged with numerous companies exploring opportunities to expand or locate operations in Alabama. It has also served as a venue for hosting key events, including the Southern Company EV Summit.

“In September 2024, the AMP Center secured $15 million in funding and Stage I approval from the University of Alabama Board of Trustees for the development of the AMP Battery Manufacturing Research Lab,” Kearney says. “This new facility will significantly enhance the Center’s ability to support battery manufacturing research and development, workforce training, and strategic business recruitment efforts aimed at strengthening Alabama’s position in the national EV battery supply chain.”

Cleco Power
Pineville, Louisiana
Richard Cornelison, Director, Marketing and Economic Development
www.clecodev.com

Corporate facility investment: $8 billion
Jobs created: 5,700
Population and territory: Cleco territory extends across 24 parishes in Louisiana, home to 500,000 people.

Highlights: “Our job is to help showcase all Louisiana has to offer, from reliable energy to infrastructure like ports and waterways and agricultural land,” said Richard Cornelison, Cleco’s director of marketing and economic development, during Economic Development Week in May. “We identify, prepare and promote development-ready sites to site selectors and consultants, ensure necessary utilities are in place and provide detailed electric utility data.” The utility has been doing so for 90 years, ever since it got its start in 1935 in Bunkie, Louisiana, as an ice and cold storage business. Among the projects Cornelison highlighted is Cleco’s work with SunGas Renewables Inc. to serve their Beaver Lake Renewable Energy project, a green methanol production facility to be built in central Louisiana that will result in 100 local permanent jobs.

Cleco itself, in partnership with D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, is constructing one of the largest solar projects in Louisiana. Meanwhile, Cleco’s energy efficiency program, Power Wise, in 2024 helped customers save approximately 37.6 million kWh and assisted customers with more than $5 million in incentives and rebates to support sustainability and efficiency. But Cleco’s reliability may be its strongest calling card: The only electric utility provider to meet Louisiana’s reliability standards for each of the last 26 years, Cleco in 2024 kept customer lights on over 99% of the time.

Entergy Corporation
New Orleans, Louisiana
Shantel Johnson, Senior Manager – Marketing
goentergy.com

Corporate facility investment: $26.6 billion
Jobs created: 3,866
Population and territory: The population of Entergy territory is 7,975,360 across 63 counties in Arkansas, 58 parishes in Louisiana, 45 counties in Mississippi, and 27 counties in Texas.

Highlights: Around 50 project wins include two $10 billion data center campuses from Meta in Louisiana and from AWS in Mississippi, as well as a 625-job Sig Sauer investment in Jacksonville, Arkansas; Sempra’s $13 billion LNG expansion in Port Arthur, Texas, and numerous petrochemical and ammonia projects in Texas and Louisiana. Entergy’s strategic recruiting delivered 289 qualified leads across its service area in 2024, including 117 in Louisiana, 40 in Arkansas, 111 in Mississippi, seven in New Orleans and 14 in Texas, the economic development team reports. Entergy Arkansas supported community applications for the state’s first Site Development Grant program through the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, resulting in $10 million awarded to 13 communities, seven of which are served by Entergy. The Port of Little Rock also completed the Entergy Arkansas Select Site process in 2024. Meanwhile, Entergy Arkansas partnerships include work with the University of Central Arkansas to implement Community Catalyst projects in Vilonia and Mt. Ida in 2024; the Academies of Central Arkansas to provide hands-on learning experiences and energy industry career exploration for students; and a $100,000 commitment to support Ozarka College’s Technical Center expansion in Mountain View. Entergy Louisiana has proposed, funded and worked on 11 site development-related projects around Louisiana and now has 123 certified sites available for economic development. Entergy Mississippi’s Excellerator grant program has awarded over $600,000 to more than 20 Mississippi communities over the past eight years, including a $50,000 grant in 2024 to support digital marketing and economic development training, as well as previous grants to support site development, strategic planning, and promotion efforts, enabling these communities to invest in critical infrastructure.

Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives
Winchester, Kentucky
Brad Thomas, Manager for Economic Development
DataIsPower.org

Corporate facility investment: $1.45 billion
Jobs created: 2,403
Population and territory: The organization’s 17 cooperatives serve 1.2 million Kentucky residents across 46% of Kentucky’s geography or 89 of the 120 Kentucky counties.

Highlights: Kentucky’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives were able to secure 14 project announcements in 2024, Brad Thomas reports, including Canadian Solar’s e-storage subsidiary Shelbyville Battery Manufacturing LLC, which plans to build BESS electric grid batteries in Shelbyville, Kentucky. This project represented the largest new industrial announcement in Kentucky for 2024 in both investment ($712 million) and jobs (1,572). Other projects include Legacy Spirits’ $253 million project in Richmond (one of five bourbon distillery investments); ThermoFisher Scientific’s $48 million, 15-job investment in Covington; and Mitsubishi Electric’s $144 million project in Maysville. “As for initiatives, we have been working closely with local, regional and state economic development organizations to develop multiple industrial site locations including mega sites across our cooperative service territories,” Thomas says. “Our team has worked to ensure all necessary utility infrastructure including electricity, water, sewer and gas are available with a plan to serve large-scale industrial projects. We have been working closely with the Site Selectors Guild’s REDI Site Program to certify some of these industrial sites through their national standardized site review process.”

LG&E and KU Energy LLC
Louisville, Kentucky
John Bevington, Senior Director, Business and Economic Development
www.lge-ku.com, www.OpportunityKY.com

Corporate facility investment: $2.8 billion
Jobs created: 3,113
Population and territory: Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, part of the PPL Corporation family of companies, are regulated utilities that serve 1.3 million customers in a territory populated by 3.5 million people.

Highlights: John Bevington notes that efforts from LG&E and KU (LKE) helped Kentucky secure No. 5 in the nation in Site Selection’s 2024 Governor’s Cup per-capita rankings, with more than one-third of the statewide jobs and investment announcements set to occur in LKE service territories. Those same efforts drove high rankings in this publication’s metro-area per-capita rankings for Lexington and for Louisville in their respective tiers, as well as placement among Top Micropolitans for Richmond, Corbin, Somerset, Campbellsville, Danville and Madisonville. “Project successes in our service territories span a wide range of industries, i.e., advanced manufacturing, EV battery production, logistics, health care, metals, food and beverage, agri-tech and bourbon distilling,” he writes. “To unify and amplify impact of our economic development efforts, the companies established Opportunity KY (opportunityky.com) — a comprehensive platform designed to support site selectors and business prospects and promote our mission to fuel economic progress and community prosperity.” The initiative also encompasses grants to enhance community preparedness and a bill credit (economic development rider) that provides incentives to new and existing customers, enabling them to grow their operations and create new jobs. A total of more than $2.8 million in credits were awarded to such companies as Central Motor Wheel of America, Phoenix Paper, Manchester Tank, Danimer Scientific, Kruger Packaging, Bitiki-KY LLC, River View Coal LLC – Henderson County Mine, and UPS, supporting the creation of around 730 jobs.

Mississippi Power
Gulfport, Mississippi
Brian Useforge, Economic Development Director
mississippipowered.com

Corporate facility investment: $10.5 billion
Jobs created: 1,124
Population and territory: Mississippi Power serves a 23-county territory in southeastern Mississippi with a population of 1,032,432.

Highlights: Projects attracted last year included Compass Datacenters’ $10 billion project in Meridian, PCC GulfChem’s $540 million, 84-job project in DeLisle, Mar Jac Poultry’s $25 million investment in New Augusta and Bar Pole & Piling Co.’s $10 million project in Quitman. In September 2024, Mississippi Power unveiled a new economic development website that allows users to find information quickly and efficiently while modernizing the way the information is relayed. Last year also saw the launch of the second year of the Propels Program, designed to provide communities financial assistance toward site development, strategic planning or marketing efforts, with funds able to be utilized to provide the financial match requirement for the state’s site development program. Over the past two years, Mississippi Power has awarded over $800,000 to local communities to help further their economic development goals. The utility also contributes to commercial customers within the service area through the Commercial Investment Program, which provides grants for small business assistance, building improvements, franchise fee assistance and R&D tools for city and county recruitment efforts. This program awarded $225,000 in 2024 to local cities, counties and small businesses.

PowerSouth
Andalusia, Alabama
Taylor Williams, Vice President, External Affairs
powersouth.com

Corporate facility investment: $4.5 billion
Jobs created: 4,031
Population and territory: PowerSouth serves 39 counties in south Alabama and 10 counties in northwest Florida with a population of 3,361,419.

Highlights: Projects in 2024 came from IAG Aero (“Project Spinner”) in Bay County, Florida ($107 million, 500 jobs); Paradigm Parachute in Pensacola, Florida ($10 million, 130 jobs); and Navy Federal Credit Union in Escambia County, Florida (500 jobs), among others. Successful projects so far this year have come from Williams International in Okaloosa, Florida ($1 billion, 336 jobs); Pulse Industries in Chipley, Florida ($5 million, 100 jobs); and Precision Measurement Inc. in Fort Walton Beach, Florida ($2 million), among others. Since its launch in 2018 the Strategic Sites Identification (SSI) Program has identified 598 new sites and 185,862 total acres for the following industrial uses: megasite, heavy industrial, light industrial, heavy agribusiness and general agribusiness. Last year the team’s business retention and expansion work involved 11 northwest Florida visits, 35 Alabama visits and 20 existing industry expansions in both states.

Southeast Gas
Andalusia, Alabama
Vince Perez, Director of Economic Development
southeastgas.com/economic-development/

Corporate facility investment: $5 billion
Jobs created: 7,983 jobs
Population and territory: Southeast Gas serves over 32,000 customers,across 19 counties and 36 communities in southeastern Alabama.

Highlights: In collaboration with NextEra Energy and the Coffee County Landfill, Southeast Gas successfully commissioned Alabama’s first Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) facility in New Brockton. According to NextEra Energy Resources, the Coffee County RNG facility is projected to capture more than 16,500 metric tons of landfill methane annually. The construction and operation of the site created approximately 40 new jobs. As part of its 2024 Community Service Scholarship Program, Southeast Gas awarded $1,500 scholarships to 25 high school seniors from public schools within its service area. Since the program’s launch in 2015, Southeast Gas has provided over $325,000 in funding to 219 students. Last year the company supported public education by contributing $133,000 to 20 school systems across Alabama while the Southeast Gas Economic and Community Development team distributed $164,000 in Community Betterment Funds to 14 communities to enhance local infrastructure, public services and quality of life. “Additionally, Southeast Gas played a key role in assisting nine communities with SEEDS Round 2 applications, resulting in awards totaling $14.47 million,” writes Vince Perez. “These awards included four development grants and five assessment grants, further driving economic development and environmental progress in the region.”

Tennessee Valley Authority
Nashville, Tennessee
Joanna Muscatello, Coordinator, Global Business
tvasites.com

Corporate facility investment: $8.9 billion
Jobs created: 10,368
Population and territory: With 16 metropolitan statistical areas, TVA’s 80,000-square-mile service region covers all of Tennessee and portions of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia, with 10 million people in that territory between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Mississippi River.

Highlights: In partnership with state, regional and local economic developers and local power companies, TVA helped attract 10,368 new jobs, with 42,300 retained jobs and $8.9 billion in capital investment. Major highlights across nearly 50 projects include Orano’s multi-billion-dollar, 300-job investment in a uranium enrichment facility in Oak Ridge; a $54 million, 500-job investment in Haywood County, Tennessee from Avance, a supplier to Blue Oval City; Toyota Motor Manufacturing’s $282 million, 350-job investment in Madison County, Alabama; Liebherr’s $176 million, 180-job project in Tupelo, Mississippi; and Kentucky Aluminum Processors’ 40 million, 75-job investment in Russellville, Kentucky.

After investing more than $22 billion in the power system over the past decade, TVA expects to invest more than $16 billion in the coming years to build generation and update the power and transmission systems. Through its $1.5 billion Energy Efficiency and Demand Response program, TVA aims to offset about 30% of future load growth over the next decade, which will help lower power bills for customers. The TVA Board approved up to $350 million to explore development of a small modular reactor (SMR) at its Clinch River site in partnership with GE Hitachi, Ontario Power Generation and Synthos Green Energy New Fuels Development. TVA in August announced a partnership with Kairos Power and Google to launch a scalable, next-generation nuclear business model. “By becoming the first U.S. utility to secure a power purchase agreement for electricity from a Gen IV reactor, TVA is leading the charge in reestablishing American leadership in nuclear energy,” TVA stated, noting it’s part of an overall deal between Kairos and Google to deliver 500 megawatts of advanced nuclear capacity by 2035. Since its inception in 20222, TVA’s Workforce Invest grant program has funded 44 projects with a combined investment of $5.9 million, with the expectation of impacting more than 5,000 trainees across the Valley. Meanwhile, programs like TVA’s InvestPrep, InvestReady and the industry’s first certified Megasite program “have helped shape the landscape of the communities TVA serves,” writes Joanna Muscatello, attracting projects like the nearly $2 billion investment from Amplify Cell Technologies in a 2,000-job battery cell production facility in Marshall County, Mississippi.

Alliant Energy
Madison, Wisconsin
Dennis Jordan, Director of Customer, Community & Economic Development
alliantenergy.com

Corporate facility investment: $3.86 billion
Jobs created: 2,410
Population and territory: Alliant serves a territory in Iowa and Wisconsin with a population of 1 million.

Highlights: In 2024, extending already efficient and robust economic development programs, Alliant Energy created a Data Center Services team to facilitate economic development projects with very large energy demand. “Initially envisioned to support hyperscale data centers, of which two were announced in Alliant Energy service territory in 2024 and several more are expected, the data center services team has since shown value for large manufacturing projects, including those in renewable fuels,” wrote Dennis Jordan in our survey weeks before QTS in August announced a $10 billion campus in Cedar Rapids that marks the largest economic development project in the city’s and state’s history. “The most important factor in siting data centers amid the AI boom is speed to market,” says Coleman Peiffer, senior manager of Data Center Services. “Alliant Energy is committed to responding to the industry’s needs, while continuing to deliver reliable, cost-effective and renewable energy to our customers.”

Separately, in 2024 leaders from Iowa State University and Alliant Energy joined to cut the ribbon at the Alliant Energy Agricultural Innovation Laboratory on the university campus in Ames. Alliant Energy has identified advanced agriculture technology, renewable fuels and biochemicals as likely industries for expansion across Iowa and Wisconsin in the coming decade.

American Electric Power
Columbus, Ohio
Timothy J. Wells – Vice President, Sales, Economic and Business
aep.com/economic-development

Corporate facility investment: $5.6 billion
Jobs created: 8,306
Population and territory: AEP’s 200,000-square-mile service area, with a population of 12.4 million, covers nearly 350 counties in 11 states (Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia) and is served by seven electric utility operating companies.

Highlights: Significant milestones described by Tim Wells include the team’s Step Up / Step Out Site Initiative to expedite the service process by “enabling AEP to demonstrate that it has the necessary approvals in place to construct upgrades required for the requested load.” The program was developed to address the increasing challenges of providing timely service to prospects amidst tighter capital constraints and a surge in new projects. On a related front, “We are actively working with various internal teams to gain a clearer understanding of how projects affect rates and earnings,” Wells writes. “This involves analyzing the balance between capital investment and affordability for our customers. By modeling project impacts, we aim to identify metrics that indicate which types of projects deliver the most value to both our customers and to AEP stakeholders.” To improve responsiveness to large new customer inquiries, the AEP team developed a web-based intake form that captures all necessary data points in an easily shareable format. Similarly, the team transitioned the application for the Economic Development Rider in Indiana to a web-form format, making it a more accessible and efficient process for customers. AEP also provided financial and operational support for Michigan’s Strategic Site Readiness Program, which was newly established in 2024. As for its own workforce, last year the AEP Foundation awarded a $36,000 grant aimed at enhancing educational opportunities for students interested in the line worker certificate program at Kentucky Technical and Community College System schools. This initiative will provide 18 scholarships over the next three years.

ComEd – An Exelon Company
Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois
Ed Sitar, Senior Manager, Economic Development
www.comed.com

Corporate facility investment: $17 billion
Jobs created: 1,390
Population and territory: ComEd serves nearly 10 million people in northern Illinois, including the Chicago metro area. Its 11,000-square-mile service territory spans the upper third of Illinois, touching more than 400 municipalities and 70% of the state’s population.

Highlights: “We work closely with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Intersect Illinois and 30+ regional organizations to attract new jobs and capital investment in Illinois,” explains Ed Sitar, with his team of three holding key leadership positions on 12 state, regional or county economic development boards. Given the increased number and scale of large power requests, ComEd was one of the first utilities to implement a new cluster study process to comprehensively analyze the impact large power requests have on the transmission and distribution systems and to identify necessary reinforcements and expansions to ensure the continued reliability of the system. “This process was shared with other large utilities who are now utilizing a similar approach to manage their large load requests,” Sitar notes, adding that his team continues to engage with the Illinois Data Center Energy Task Force in conjunction with the Data Center Coalition, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s Office, PJM, the Illinois Commerce Commission and multiple internal ComEd departments. “Our signature project win in 2024 was the successful attraction of PsiQuantum, who will build the first U.S. utility-scale quantum computer at the newly created Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) at the long-vacant U. S. Steel site in southeast Chicago,” he writes. “Our partnership with the State of Illinois and other regional and local stakeholders provided PsiQuantum the confidence ComEd could serve the power needs of their large campus.” In addition to continued leadership in clean energy and solar, the ComEd team launched a 3-year, $231 million beneficial electrification rebate program which has incentivized the purchase and installation of nearly 5,000 public and private EV charging ports and the purchase or lease of nearly 1,000 new and pre-owned electric fleet vehicles. Meanwhile, in 2024, customer savings resulting from ComEd’s Energy Efficiency Program passed the $11 billion mark since the programs were launched in 2008. In partnership with a coalition of nearly 50 construction and utility employers. ComEd graduated 69 students in 2024 from its CONSTRUCT Infrastructure Academy and welcomed two new employers. Since inception, the program has served over 1,000 participants with a 70% job placement rate.

Consumers Energy
Jackson, Michigan
Valerie Christofferson, Director of Economic Development
www.consumersenergy.com/econdev

Corporate facility investment: $6.5 billion
Jobs created: 4,559
Population and territory: The principal subsidiary of CMS Energy Corporation, Consumers Energy offers electric and/or natural gas service in all 68 counties in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, a territory with a population of 6.8 million.

Highlights: Among major projects in 2024, Corning, Inc., announced a new solar component manufacturing facility in north central Michigan’s Richland Township and Saginaw County that is expected to generate total investment of $1.5 billion and create more than 1,500 direct jobs. Switch Communications Group LLC completed its second data center building on the former Steelcase pyramid campus in West Michigan’s Gaines Township, with plans underway to invest hundreds of millions of dollars more for a third building. The BENTELER Group is investing $105 million to expand its operations at the long-vacant former brownfield site known as Site 36 in Grand Rapids, where other investors include Corewell Health (an $80 million distribution center) and Gelock, a crane, rigging, heavy hauling and heavy industrial warehousing company. “Nearby Wyoming and Godwin Heights residents have long sought a connective space, and the new Godwin Mercado on Site 36 fits the bill,” writes Valerie Christofferson. “The Godwin Mercado will be a central downtown Wyoming destination. Funding for the new $6.2 million marketplace comes through grants from the Consumers Energy Foundation, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and a contribution from Franklin Partners, among other sources.”

Other work by the Consumers Energy team includes continuing to support energy analyses and due diligence behind MI Sites, a Michigan Economic Development Corp. program developed in partnership with site consultancy Quest Site Solutions; “proactively deepening the Consumers Energy team’s understanding of the semiconductor sector’s unique needs in energy and beyond”; and implementing a data center intake process to 1) help prospective data centers and their consultants provide the right information to speed and prioritize Consumers Energy’s responses, and 2) “enable our organization sufficient time to validate our solution to serve this industry’s significant energy needs.”

Dominion Energy
Richmond, Virginia
Jen Kostyniuk, Senior Director of Economic Development
www.dominionenergy.com

Corporate facility investment: $16 billion
Jobs created: 4,957
Population and territory: Dominion Energy serves a territory in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina with a population of 4.5 million.

Highlights: Dominion Energy recently launched a digital marketing strategy to reach site seekers. The campaign includes a newly designed website, social media and digital content. “For example,” explains Senior Director of Economic Development Jen Kostyniuk, “the new Dominion Energy Economic Development LinkedIn page directly connects site seekers with the people at Dominion Energy who can help make their project happen.” The team at Dominion Energy also continues to work closely with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to support the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program, as well as with the South Carolina Department of Commerce and the North Carolina Department of Commerce. Of interest to corporate end-users in its home state in particular, on the operations side Dominion Energy announced in June just before hurricane season that it had finished burying more than 2,500 miles of the most outage-prone power lines in Virginia as part of the company’s Strategic Underground Program, launched in 2014. The company plans to bury thousands more miles in the coming years. “The average outage time for customers with buried lines has fallen from 11 hours to just 2 minutes,” the utility stated. “With fewer outages in these areas, crews can more quickly restore power for other customers. In many areas, average restoration time for all customers has been cut in half during major storms such as tropical storms and hurricanes.

The company’s Mainfeeder Hardening program is further reducing storm-related power outages by replacing thousands of older utility poles and cross arms across the company’s system. Average outage time for customers served by hardened mainfeeder lines has fallen by 30%.

Duke Energy
Charlotte, North Carolina
Stu Heishman – Vice President, Economic Development
www.duke-energy.com/partner-with-us/economic-development

Corporate facility investment: $26.4 billion
Jobs created: 16,264
Population and territory: Duke Energy serves a population of 2.7 million across 90,000 square miles of service area in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

Highlights: More than 75 projects landed somewhere in Duke Energy’s six-state territory in 2024. The Duke Energy Site Readiness program, which helps identify, assess, improve and increase awareness of industrial sites in the company’s territory, “continues to bring in businesses and boost our communities,” writes Stu Heishman. Twenty sites completed the Site Readiness Program in 2024, increasing the portfolio of Site Readiness locations to 392 across the six-state territory since the launch of the program in 2005. As a result of projects and companies that have located on a site that participated in the Site Readiness program, 52,800 jobs have been created and $57 billion in new capital has been invested in Duke Energy communities.

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL)
Juno Beach, Florida
Cathy Chambers, Senior Director, Economic Development
www.poweringflorida.com

Corporate facility investment: $1.8 billion
Jobs created: 8,989
Population and territory: FPL serves a population of 12 million in the state of Florida.

Highlights: Among the more than 70 projects last year were a $64 million, 250-job investment from aerospace company AAR in Miami-Dade; a $67.5 million, 152-job project from Compass Health in Palm Beach County; and a $90 million, 400-job investment from Boeing in Volusia County. FPL recently updated and re-launched the Florida First Sites program to promote industrial sites across its service area. FloridaFirstSites.com features nearly 40 vetted sites — with more on the way — from the Panhandle to South Florida, says Cathy Chambers. The website includes essential information including electric, gas, water and wastewater infrastructure; road and rail access; proximity to airports and seaports; and a video virtual tour.

“This program benefits communities served by FPL by promoting not only the sites but the demographics and quality of life in each region in an effort to foster economic growth and create jobs,” Chambers writes. “It enhances site visibility and competitiveness, allowing communities to compete for valuable economic development projects.”

Georgia Power
Atlanta, Georgia
Charlie Moseley, Manager of Statewide Economic Development
www.SelectGeorgia.com

Corporate facility investment: $9.1 billion
Jobs created: 16,957
Population and territory: Georgia Power provides electric service to more than 2.8 million customers in 155 of the state’s 159 counties, a territory with a population of 5.8 million.

Highlights: How busy was 2024 for Georgia Power’s economic development team? Busy enough to send us 16 pages of material in response to our annual survey, as well as a lengthy project list that included a $344.5 million, 600-job facility from glass recycler SOLARCYCLE in Cedartown; a $184-million, 354-job investment from Switzerland-based GF Casting Solutions AG in Augusta that will make components for the BMW plant in South Carolina and a 1,000-job HQ from fantasy sports operator PrizePicks in Atlanta. Manufacturing and data centers drove an overall unprecedented demand for utilities. “Despite projects often being impacted by election-year politics and uncertainty, our project pipeline closed at an all-time high with 312 projects and 88,500 potential jobs, directly tied to the efforts of the team to generate new leads and focus on site opportunities,” writes Jennifer Zeller. “Office and headquarter projects rebounded this year, reflected in our top locations, and warehousing and manufacturing locations remain strong, particularly food, aerospace, EV and supply chain. Data center projects comprised 22% of all capital investment and 65% of total energy load demand.”

Headlining the utility’s workforce development efforts is this stat: 158,000 K-12 students engaged. Meanwhile, with the addition of Unit 4 at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle nuclear plant in April 2024, Georgia is now the home to the largest generator of emissions-free energy in the United States. The innovative in-house team launched a new update to its online GIS site and building platform called Site Selector and upgraded its proprietary, copyrighted Site Assessment Matrix. New tools included the Project Map Tool to quickly create interactive maps centered around sites and buildings with ESRI demographics and jobs data from Lightcast, and a Tax Digest Tool to visualize a county’s tax digest distribution. Meanwhile, the team launched a second cohort of the CREATE (Cultivating Rural Entrepreneurs and Transforming Economies) program launched with Main Street USA in 2022 and is now working with four Georgia communities (Ellijay/Gilmer, Eatonton/Putnam, Clarkesville/Habersham, Tifton/Tift) to complete entrepreneurial development strategic plans.

Arizona Public Service
Phoenix, Arizona
Kelly Patton, Economic Development Manager
www.aps.com

Corporate facility investment: $1.1 billion
Jobs created: 3,229
Population and territory: APS serves homes and businesses in 11 of Arizona’s 15 counties, where a population of 1.4 million resides.

Highlights: The team continues to collaborate with state, county, regional and municipal economic development groups across Arizona to promote the state as an opportunity for business investment that creates jobs and capital investment expenditures promoting a healthy economy, regardless if it’s in APS service territory. This includes board and committee involvement in 21 public and private organizations focused on statewide economic and commercial development. The team also serves as a community and business advocate for internal navigation and better process development at APS. On the operations side, among infrastructure upgrades was completion of phase one of a major upgrade to a 230 kilovolt (kV) underground transmission line, known as the “backbone” of the metro Phoenix 230kV system, strengthening reliability for customers to support high energy demands and future growth. And APS continues to partner with Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power to provide support via the Utilities’ Grant Funding Program to Arizona communities impacted by the transition away from coal-fired power plants. In June this year, Palo Verde Generating Station, a nuclear power plant 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, celebrated 40 years of operations.

Salt River Project
Tempe, Arizona
Karla Moran, Manager, Economic Development
www.powertogrowphx.com

Corporate facility investment: $4.2 billion
Jobs created: 3,812
Population and territory: Salt River Project serves a territory populated by 2 million people.

Highlights: Metro Phoenix growth continues to drive innovative practices in economic development at the same time SRP leads initiatives in water conservation and energy management. In July this year, SRP set a new record by delivering its highest-ever system peak of 8,324 megawatts. Yes, extreme heat is one reason. But so is an increase in the number of SRP commercial and residential power customers. In February of this year SRP put out an RFP that seeks competitive proposals for resources that can provide at least 600 MW of summer capacity by the summer of 2031 and an additional minimum of 500 MW of capacity by the summer of 2032. “SRP is also seeking information on the earliest date that projects can be online,” the utility said, “recognizing the interest and potential for large customer growth.” SRP, NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, the Arizona State Land Department and Babbitt Ranches recently celebrated the completion of the 50-turbine Babbitt Ranch Energy Center, a 161-megawatt (MW) wind project located on Babbitt Ranches property in Coconino County, north of Flagstaff, that will generate around $9.5 million in additional tax revenue to the Coconino County area over the facility’s lifespan while supplying power to Google’s future data center in Mesa. Google is also receiving energy from Sonoran Solar Energy Center, a 260-MW solar facility with a 1 gigawatt-hour battery energy storage system located in Buckeye, and Storey Energy Center, an 88-MW solar and battery energy storage system located in Coolidge. SRP last September recognized Avondale and Scottsdale as SRP Sustainable Cities with a Platinum designation for their sustainable-focused assets and programs. The Sustainable Cities Program is managed by the SRP Economic Development team and economic development consulting firm Boyette Strategic Advisors.

Nebraska Public Power District
Columbus, Nebraska
Nicole Sedlacek, Economic Development Manager
www.nppd.com

Corporate facility investment: $1 billion
Jobs created: 1,064
Population and territory: Nebraska Public Power District’s chartered service territory includes all or parts of 84 of Nebraska’s 93 counties, with a population of 530,000.

Highlights: The NPPD team has implemented new programs that projects find very helpful, says Nicole Sedlacek: a special power product, interruptible market-based rate and a demand response program. Both of these rate products help large energy users respond to resource needs on the system. A baker’s dozen of projects that landed in NPPD territory include a $375 million, 55-job investment by Norfolk Crush in Norfolk; a $325 million, 875-job project from Sustainable Beef in North Platte; a $76 million, 83-job project from AGP in David City; and a $65 million, 12-job investment from Green Plains in Central City. Last fall, NPPD was honored as the 2024 Economic Development Partner of the Year by the North Platte Chamber of Commerce. “NPPD is known as a support resource to help with research, prospect visits, site readiness assistance and many other ways to help the North Platte community with their economic development goals,” Sedlacek said then. NPPD has worked closely with the community over the last several decades and most recently played a vital role in the development of Hershey Rail Park, a 300-acre site intended to attract agribusiness, manufacturing and processing.

Omaha Public Power District
Omaha, Nebraska
Brook Aken, Director – Economic Development & External Relations
oppd.com/business/economic-development/

Corporate facility investment: $1 billion
Jobs created: 1,325
Population and territory: OPPD serves a 13-county, 5,000-square-mile service area in southeast Nebraska that is home to 1 million people.

Highlights: OPPD continues to serve as an official resource partner with SourceLink Nebraska, which connects aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners with resources to start, scale or accelerate their business in Nebraska. The OPPD team also continues to serve companies with SizeUpNebraska, which empowers Nebraska businesses to make data-driven decisions that foster their growth and success. The LocationOne Information System (LOIS) used by OPPD to track available sites and buildings for development this summer showed 240 sites and 1,394 buildings in or near OPPD territory. The latest data (2023) from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that OPPD rates, averaged across all classes, were 15.8% below the regional average and 27.4% below the national average, with industrial rates that were 11.6% below the regional average and 13.6% below the national average. Among operational projects in the works, OPPD continues to upgrade its transmission system in North Douglas County to serve increasing customer demand for electricity, provide additional capacity for economic development growth, support future electrical system enhancements and maintain reliability.