# Duke Energy CEO forecasts power demand growth at 10 times historic rate > Source: > Published: 2026-06-03 18:55:27+00:00 # Duke Energy CEO forecasts power demand growth at 10 times historic rate Harry Sideris points to AI data centers and electrification as the driving forces behind a $103 billion infrastructure bet. For the past three decades, electricity demand in the US grew at a pace best described as glacial. Somewhere between 0% and 0.5% annually. Duke Energy’s CEO Harry Sideris now expects that number to multiply by a factor of ten, and he’s backing that conviction with the largest capital plan in the utility sector’s history. ## A $103 billion bet on insatiable demand Duke Energy has rolled out a five-year capital plan totaling $103 billion, aimed at adding more than 13 gigawatts of generation capacity by 2030. The plan targets 5% to 7% earnings per share growth through 2030. During a session at Reuters NEXT and separate CNBC appearances, Sideris laid out the case that this demand acceleration is expected to begin in earnest around 2026. The company has already been scaling its commitments to large-load customers. In 2023, those commitments sat at approximately 1.3 GW. By early 2024, Duke planned to push that figure past 3 GW. Data centers and crypto mining operations alone account for roughly 1.5 GW of that demand. ## Who pays for all this new infrastructure The company is structuring contracts so that large-load customers, primarily data centers, bear the costs of the infrastructure expansion needed to serve them. Duke has also upgraded its profit guidance for 2026, citing robust power demand from AI and advanced manufacturing operations as the primary drivers. ## The crypto angle, and why it’s smaller than you’d think Earlier assessments indicated that crypto mining would account for roughly 3% to 4% of new large-load electricity demand through 2033, a figure that’s separate from data center consumption. The combined demand from data centers and crypto mining is expected to represent nearly half of the incremental capacity Duke needs through the early 2030s. Despite crypto’s role in Duke’s demand picture, the company’s strategy discussions have notably avoided any references to individual cryptocurrencies or blockchain-specific regulations. **Disclosure:** This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our [Editorial Policy](https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/).