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Sempra Advances $13 Billion Expansion Plan as Texas Grid Surge Fuels Growth

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Sempra (SRE) reported Q2 earnings on Thursday, as the energy firm accelerates capital deployment, investing over $6 billion in H1 2026 as part of a broader $13 billion annual target aimed at modernizing and expanding its critical energy infrastructure.

The company's Texas utility, Oncor, secured regulatory approval from state grid operator ERCOT for over $7 billion in new transmission projects, bolstering visibility on its $10 billion in incremental capital opportunities through 2030.

Oncor's interconnection backlog has grown to 298 gigawatts, with 44 GW of customer requests currently under ERCOT evaluation in the so-called "Batch Zero" process, representing a potential 140% increase over Oncor's 31 GW peak demand.

Meanwhile, Sempra's California utilities, SDG&E and SoCalGas, filed their 2028 General Rate Case applications, seeking higher revenues to support wildfire mitigation, electric reliability, and pipeline integrity investments.

The filings propose a two-part mechanism to share productivity gains with customers while preserving the ability to outperform return-on-equity targets.

SDG&E is targeting requests of $3.8 billion for Test Year 2028, scaling to $4.6 billion by 2031, while SoCalGas's requested base revenues span from $5.1 billion to $6 billion over the same horizon.

Oncor's electricity deliveries rose 5.6% to 44.6 billion kilowatt-hours in Q2, compared with 42.2 billion kWh a year ago.

Oncor's customer base expanded, with total electric customer meters increasing to 4.141 million in the six months to June 30, up from 4.084 million a year ago.

Total electricity deliveries at Sempra California rose 4.8% to 3.89 billion kWh in Q2, compared with 3.71 billion kWh for the corresponding period a year earlier.

Community Choice Aggregation and Direct Access volumes, which represent electricity supplied by third-party providers over the utility's transmission and distribution network, climbed to 3.3 billion kWh from 3.1 billion kWh.

However, gas demand in California weakened. Total natural gas deliveries fell to 174 billion cubic feet during the quarter, down from 189 Bcf a year earlier. Gas sales declined to 68 Bcf in Q2, down from 75 Bcf, while transportation volumes fell to 106 Bcf from 114 Bcf.

Despite lower gas throughput, Sempra California's customer base continued to expand. Total gas customer meters increased to 7.15 million as of June 30 from 7.14 million a year earlier. Electric customer meters increased to 1.55 million from 1.54 million.

Price: $84.76, Change: $+0.10, Percent Change: +0.12%

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