Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT) executives highlighted strong 2025 financial and operational performance, progress on regulated investment plans, and continued momentum in large-load demand growth during the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call. Management also discussed the relocation of a key data center project within its service territory and reaffirmed 2026 earnings guidance.
2025 performance and updated demand outlook
President and CEO Lisa Barton said 2025 was shaped by “major shifts” in public policy, global trade, tax legislation, and accelerating electric demand. She reported the company delivered “another year of strong financial and operational performance,” including ongoing earnings per share (EPS) growth of 6% for 2025, which exceeded the midpoint of guidance and aligned with Alliant’s long-term target of 5% to 7%+.
On customer growth, Barton said Alliant ended 2025 with four executed electric service agreements (ESAs) totaling 3 gigawatts (GW) of peak load, which she described as translating to 50% future growth in demand. The company is also pursuing an additional 2 GW to 4 GW of large-load opportunities beyond what is included in current capital and financial outlooks, and expects to provide updates as new ESAs are signed.
QTS project relocation and capital plan reallocation
Management addressed the relocation of a QTS data center project that had been planned near Madison, Wisconsin. Barton said QTS decided to relocate the project and selected a new site within Alliant’s Iowa service territory after reviewing multiple sites. She said Alliant has signed a new electric service agreement for the relocated project and that the company’s four-year consolidated capital expenditure program and investment growth expectations “remain on track.”
Executive Vice President and CFO Robert Durian said the company reallocated certain gas, wind, and energy storage investments between its state utilities as a result of the relocation, describing it as a repositioning of resources within the consolidated portfolio. He said Alliant has gas turbine reservation agreements and project locations for all planned self-developed gas resources, and that the plan includes simple-cycle gas resources to address increasing capacity needs while retaining flexibility to expand to combined-cycle facilities in the future.
On timing, Durian characterized annual capital plan shifts as modest, describing movements as refinements of the planning process. In response to a question about updated demand base and timing assumptions, he said the relocation introduced “a little bit of a delay in the ramp,” but less than a year, and that the changes reflected “refinements and rounding issues more than anything.”
Earnings drivers, non-recurring items, and 2026 guidance assumptions
Durian said Alliant reported 2025 GAAP and ongoing earnings and delivered year-over-year ongoing EPS growth of $0.18 compared to 2024. He attributed the improvement primarily to increased revenue requirements from rate-based increases tied to continued investment in generation and energy storage, along with favorable temperature impacts on electric and gas sales.
Those positives were partially offset by higher operating and maintenance (O&M) expenses related to planned generation maintenance and the addition of new generation resources, higher generation development costs to support long-term growth, and increased depreciation and financing expenses associated with the expanding capital program.
Durian said weather contributed approximately $0.03 per share to 2025 electric and gas margins, compared with an approximately $0.15 per share reduction in 2024. Excluding temperature effects, electric sales increased by nearly 1% in 2025 compared to 2024, driven by higher commercial and industrial sales across both Interstate Power and Light (IPL) and Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL).
Ongoing earnings excluded two non-recurring items, Durian said:
- A $0.05 charge related to the suspension of production at Travero’s wind turbine blade recycling operations as the company reviewed strategic options for the business.
- A $0.03 charge associated with remeasurement of deferred tax assets, reflecting updated state income tax apportionment assumptions driven by higher projected electric utility revenues from commercial and industrial customers, including new data center agreements.
With the new QTS electric service agreement and a capital plan Durian described as “materially consistent,” the company reaffirmed 2026 earnings guidance. He said key 2026 assumptions include higher earnings from growing capital investments (including allowance for funds used during construction), expected retail sales growth of approximately 1% (inclusive of sales to new data centers during construction), and higher O&M, depreciation, and financing costs consistent with the larger capital base. Durian also cited the ability to use investment tax credits from energy storage placed in service in 2025 and 2026 to support earning authorized Iowa Electric return on equity while maintaining stable Iowa electric base rates.
Looking further out, Durian said Alliant expects compound annual earnings growth of 7%+ across 2027 to 2029, consistent with what the company shared in November 2025, based on current projections for capital execution and data center load timing.
Financing and regulatory updates
Durian outlined 2026 debt financing plans of up to $1.2 billion in long-term issuances, consisting of up to $400 million at the parent or Alliant Energy Finance, up to $300 million at WPL, and up to $500 million at IPL. He said the company has already retired a $300 million term loan and expects a new term loan in the first quarter, and that liquidity positions Alliant to address upcoming parent-level maturities in March 2026.
Over the four-year plan, Durian said the company expects approximately $2.4 billion of common equity needs, and has already raised about $1 billion through forward equity agreements. That leaves around $1.3 billion to be raised through 2029, excluding equity expected from the shareholder direct plan.
On regulatory matters, Durian said Alliant has no active rate reviews planned in 2026. He highlighted Iowa approvals for certificates of public convenience and necessity for a 720-megawatt simple-cycle natural gas facility in Marshall County, Iowa (the Bobcat Energy Center) and a 94-megawatt natural gas RICE unit in Burlington, Iowa. He also said the company is awaiting an Iowa Utilities Commission decision on a settlement related to advanced ratemaking principles for up to 1 GW of new wind generation, with an expected decision in the first half of 2026.
In Wisconsin, Durian said the company has five active dockets, including requests for pre-approval of customer-focused investments such as its first liquefied natural gas storage facility and a request to add approximately 430 megawatts of new wind generation. He also said the company is awaiting a decision from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin on an individual customer rate filing associated with the Meta data center in Beaver Dam, with a decision expected in the second quarter.
During Q&A, Barton said data center minimum-take agreements are below current planning assumptions, meaning faster ramp or higher usage would be “accretive” versus the plan. She also said Alliant is using individual customer rates in both Iowa and Wisconsin to ensure all customers benefit from economic development, emphasizing that existing customers “will not be paying for this data center growth” and should benefit from it.
About Alliant Energy (NASDAQ:LNT)
Alliant Energy Corporation (NASDAQ: LNT) is a publicly traded energy holding company headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, that provides regulated electric and natural gas utility services in the American Midwest. The company serves customers primarily in Wisconsin and Iowa through its regulated utility subsidiaries and operates as an integrated provider responsible for generation, transmission and distribution of energy to residential, commercial and industrial customers.
Alliant Energy’s core activities include operating and maintaining electric generation assets, managing the regional transmission and distribution network, and delivering natural gas service to its franchise territories.
