多明尼克能源 (D) 2026年第三季度业绩电话会议：业绩指引、CVOW及数据中心需求

核心要点

• 2026年第三季度运营收益为每股1.28美元， 其中包括来自RNG 45Z税收抵免的每股0.05美元以及 来自好于常年天气因素的每股0.05美元。GAAP 收益为每股1.30美元。
• Dominion Energy目前预计全年业绩将位于其最初指引区间的上半部分，理由是电力销售强劲、天气有利、45Z税收抵免收益高于预期以及运营执行力良好。
• 弗吉尼亚沿海海上风电项目（CVOW）已完成约 85%。公司维持其116.5亿美元的预算，并预计将于2027年底前竣工。
• Dominion报告称处于不同签约阶段的数据中心容量超过54吉瓦，其中包括已签署电力服务协议的超过12吉瓦。
• 拟议与NextEra Energy合并的目标仍为在2027年下半年完成交割，具体取决于州和联邦监管机构的批准。
• 相较于先前的首选计划，Dominion更新后的弗吉尼亚州资源计划新增并加速推进了4吉瓦的光伏和2吉瓦的电池储能。

关键财务数据

业务与运营表现

Dominion服务区域内的用电需求保持强劲。DOM区域夏季用电高峰天数前10名均发生在2026年，同时DESC在8月创下了历史用电新高。

该公司表示，其弗吉尼亚州的大负荷框架旨在确保数据中心客户分担支持增长所需的投资，从而降低现有客户的成本转移和沉没成本风险。自上年末以来，已签约的数据中心容量增加了6吉瓦以上，即13%。

CVOW已安装44台风电机组，代表超过640兆瓦的发电容量，在电话会议期间正在安装第45台风电机组。所有机舱、塔筒和叶片的制造均已完成。

最近9台风电机组的平均安装时间约为38小时，而最初10台的平均安装时间为69小时。管理层表示，天气因素和Charybdis维护放缓了9月和10月的进度，但相关影响仍处于此前设定的工期缓冲范围内。

Dominion估计，CVOW在其运营的前10年内可为客户节省约50亿美元的燃料成本。其平准化度电成本仍低于适用的法定阈值，且计算中将可再生能源证书收入用于抵减项目成本。

在弗吉尼亚州，Dominion更新后的综合资源计划将2030年至2034年规划的电池储能容量从850兆瓦提升至3.3吉瓦。管理层将每吉瓦视作约25亿至30亿美元的潜在资本投资机会，不过部分项目可能会采用购电协议而非纳费基数。

在Millstone，管理层表示，现有的购电协议预计将在2026年为康涅狄格州客户节省超过2.45亿美元，其中包括年初至今已节省的2亿美元。根据当前的远期曲线，Dominion估计在该合同10年期限内将累计为客户节省超过9亿美元。

管理层指引

Dominion预计全年运营业绩将落在其最初指引区间的上半部分。该展望对11月和12月的天气持保守态度，并包含了为降低未来财务业绩风险可能采取的行动。

公司重申了现有的信用评级、股息和长期增长指引。管理层还表示，预计2027年和2028年仍将是股权融资规模相对较小的年份，同时指出尚未提供更新后的预测。

关于CVOW，Dominion维持了对项目在2027年底前竣工以及第三座暨最后一座海上变电站在2026年底前通电的预期。

管理层继续预计与NextEra Energy的交易将在2027年下半年完成交割。弗吉尼亚州的最终监管裁定将在1月11日前出台，而南卡罗来纳州的裁定将于2027年1月29日前出台。北卡罗来纳州的听证会定于2027年2月23日开始。

风险与关注事项

• 并购审批：与NextEra的交易仍有待监管程序。分析师关注的焦点集中在涉及隔离保护（ring-fencing）、股息限制和客户保护的拟议条件上，但管理层拒绝在正式提交文件之前讨论详细的反驳立场。
• CVOW执行：天气、船舶维护、运输时间、港口装载以及困难的安装地点都可能影响工期。管理层估计，剩余计划留出了约30至95天作为应对天气、维护和其他突发事件的缓冲时间。
• REC定价：管理层表示，可再生能源证书的价格难以预测。REC价格的变化会影响CVOW计算出的平准化度电成本。
• Millstone合同签订：康涅狄格州监管机构表示将在今年晚些时候就零碳能源招标程序做出决定，但管理层表示公开信息的具体时间和范围仍不确定。
• 天气敏感性：全年指引对2026年最后两个月的天气持保守态度。

分析师问答环节亮点

关于与NextEra的合并，管理层强调，弗吉尼亚州适用的法律标准是该交易是否会损害或危及按公正合理费率提供的适当服务。Dominion认为，其拟议的客户返还金、能源援助、劳动力投资和供应商承诺超出了“无害”标准的要求。

关于CVOW的工期规划，管理层表示，132台风电机组 仍待安装，截至2027年底剩余时间约为425至427个日历日。按照每台风机1.5至2天计算，安装需要约200至265天，而33次港口装载可能需要约130天。

在被问及大型项目执行情况时，管理层强调了经验丰富的施工团队、成熟的承包商关系、供应链监督以及对许可证办理的熟悉度。管理层还提及在风电机组、单桩基础和过渡段安装方面学习曲线带来的效率提升。

关于弗吉尼亚州的储能投资，管理层表示，根据《弗吉尼亚州清洁经济法案》，大部分规划容量可能会由公司自建，而部分项目将采用购电协议（PPA）架构，因此不会纳入纳费基数。

业绩电话会议完整文字记录

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完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Welcome to the Dominion Energy Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to David McFarland, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, and Treasurer.

David McFarland

Good morning, and thank you for joining Dominion Energy's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Earnings materials, including today's prepared remarks, contain forward-looking statements and estimates that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our SEC filings, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for a discussion of factors that may cause results to differ from management's estimates and expectations.

This morning, we will discuss some measures of our company's performance that differ from those recognized by GAAP. Reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, which we can calculate, are contained in the Earnings Release Kit. I encourage you to visit our Investor Relations website to review webcast slides as well as the Earnings Release Kit.

Joining today's call are Bob Blue, Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer; Steven Ridge, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and other members of senior management. I will now turn the call over to Steven.

Steven Ridge

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. We continue to be focused on 3 top priorities: first, consistent achievement of our financial commitments; second, continued achievement of major construction milestones for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project; and third, constructive achievement of regulatory outcomes that demonstrate our ability to work cooperatively with regulators and stakeholders to benefit both customers and shareholders. As we'll discuss today, we continue to demonstrate success against these priorities, extending our track record of high-quality and consistent execution. I'll cover financial results in my remarks. Bob will provide updates on the NextEra Energy combination, CVOW and other business items in his remarks.

Turning first to third quarter results, as shown on Slide 3. Third quarter operating earnings were $1.28 per share, including $0.05 from RNG 45Z credits and $0.05 from better-than-normal weather. Third quarter GAAP results were $1.30 per share. A summary of earnings drivers relative to the prior year period is included in Schedule 4 of the Earnings Release Kit, and a summary of all adjustments between operating and GAAP results is included in Schedule 2 of the Earnings Release Kit.

Turning now to guidance. Year-to-date operating EPS has benefited from better-than-budgeted sales, better-than-normal weather and higher-than-expected 45Z credit income, combined with strong overall financial and operational execution. Inclusive of conservatism for balance of year weather as well as potential opportunities to derisk future financial performance, we now expect full year results to be in the top half of our original guidance range. We've provided year-over-year drivers for the fourth quarter in the appendix of today's materials for your reference. Additionally, we are reaffirming all other existing financial guidance provided on our fourth quarter earnings call, including credit, dividend and long-term growth guidance.

Turning to financing on Slide 4. We made significant progress on our financing plan during the quarter, successfully executing several planned transactions while continuing to manage the balance sheet, consistent with our robust credit guidance. In September, the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved our fuel securitization financing petition, representing the balance of approximately $900 million, helping mitigate near-term fuel-related impacts on customer bills.

Turning briefly to sales. We're continuing to see strong sales in our service areas with LTM weather normal electric sales growth of 3.4% across DEV and DESC. In addition, all 10 of the DOM zone's summer peak demand days have occurred in 2026. And in August, DESC set a new all-time electric peak.

Turning to Slide 5. Since our last update, we continue to see robust and durable demand from our differentiated, high-quality, low-risk data center customers across multiple localities in Virginia. And we're bringing these customers onto our system in the right way: protecting existing customers from cost shifts while mitigating stranded cost risk by utilizing a large load framework approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission in our most recent biennial review that ensures these customers continue to pay their fair share of the investments required to support their growth.

We now have over 54 gigawatts of data center capacity in various stages of contracting, including over 12 gigawatts of capacity contracted under electric service agreements. To put that in context, we've added over 6 gigawatts of contracts or 13% since the end of last year.

In conclusion, I'm highly confident in our ability to deliver on our financial plan. We've built our plan to be appropriately but also not unreasonably conservative to weather unforeseen challenges that may occur.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Bob.

Robert Blue

Thank you, Steven. I'll begin with safety on Slide 6. Through September, our employee OSHA injury recordable rate was 0.41, which remains well below industry average. Safety is our first core value, and we're always focused on driving workplace injuries to 0.

Turning next to our announced combination with NextEra Energy. As we detailed in May, this transaction represents a truly transformational opportunity to bring together 2 world-class utilities with 238 years of collective industry experience to even better serve millions of regulated customers across 4 states. Looking ahead, we believe we can accomplish far more on behalf of our customers together than we can apart.

In mid-September, NextEra and Dominion announced an enhanced Virginia benefits package that puts customers first and positions the Commonwealth as a global energy leader. That proposal doubled the duration of residential bill credits, expanded energy bill assistance by $100 million, included a $100 million workforce development fund, committed to creating at least 1,000 new jobs in the Commonwealth, building a new shareholder-funded co-headquarters tower in Richmond and supporting Virginia companies through a $1 billion annual 5-year Virginia supplier program. Over the longer term, customers and communities will benefit from a stronger company with the scale and capabilities to buy, build, finance and operate critical energy infrastructure more efficiently, helping support reliability, affordability and economic growth.

In Virginia, we've received testimony from parties which we will address through rebuttal testimony due November 2. Evidentiary hearings begin on November 17, and the final order is due by January 11 of next year. Ultimately, the State Corporation Commission will decide the case based on the record presented to it and on the legal standard, whether adequate service to the public at just and reasonable rates will not be impaired or jeopardized by the proposed transaction.

Another way of thinking about this is whether the transaction will do no harm to customers. We're confident that we have met that standard. In fact, we've exceeded the standard by proposing significant benefits in terms of customer affordability, jobs in our service area and development of needed energy resources.

In South Carolina, we've received testimony from parties which we will address through rebuttal testimony due November 18. Hearings begin on December 8, with a final order by January 29, 2027. In North Carolina, hearings begin on February 23, 2027. The time lines for each of the proceedings are shown on Slide 7.

Required federal approvals have all been filed and continue to progress. We continue to expect the transaction to close in the second half of 2027. I could not be more excited about the combination of these 2 companies. We'll continue to share updates as we progress through the regulatory process.

Turning next to offshore wind on Slide 8. CVOW continues to make significant progress, with the project approximately 85% complete and the fabrication of all nacelles, towers and blades now complete. We've installed 44 turbines representing more than 640 megawatts of generating capacity, with the installation of the 45th turbine happening now. Installation continues to average approximately 2 days from jack up to jack down, consistent with our assumptions.

July and August turbine installation cadence was in line with expectations, while September and October were below due to a combination of weather and Charybdis maintenance activities, which were completed earlier this month. Importantly, these impacts were within the types of risks contemplated when we added scheduled contingency last quarter. While we utilized a portion of that contingency, our outlook has not changed. We continue to expect project completion by the end of 2027 and energization of the third and final offshore substation by year-end 2026.

From a cost perspective, our current budget remains $11.65 billion, including $123 million of unused contingency. We also continue to see strong customer value. The project's LCOE remains well below the statutory threshold, as well as the range contemplated in our original filing, and we estimate CVOW will generate approximately $5 billion of fuel savings for customers during its first 10 years of operation. Our overall view of the project remains unchanged. CVOW installation has been significantly derisked and continues to make progress against its schedule and cost objectives while delivering significant long-term customer value.

Now I'll turn to other business updates, as shown on Slide 10. In mid-October, we filed our Virginia Integrated Resource Plan update, which included several possible generation build portfolios designed to meet robust customer demand growth. Relative to last year's company preferred plan, we've added and accelerated 4 gigawatts of solar and 2 gigawatts of battery storage. Importantly, under the company's preferred plan, we're meeting our customer needs, protecting system reliability, maintaining affordability with monthly residential electric bills forecasted to increase on average by about 2.3% annually.

We continue to see a growing role for energy storage in Virginia. Our recently filed IRP is an update and represents a snapshot in time, but it already reflects a meaningful increase in storage relative to our prior plan. Importantly, Virginia also enacted significant energy storage legislation this year that establishes substantially higher targets for both short- and long-duration storage. We expect storage to play an increasingly important role as use cases continue to broaden and the technology continues to advance.

We're actively evaluating both short-duration battery storage and emerging long-duration technologies through the lens of reliability, affordability and customer need. And looking longer term, the proposed combination with NextEra Energy would bring together significant capabilities and experience in energy storage. We believe that positions the combined company exceptionally well to deploy storage at scale as the technology matures and system needs evolve.

Finally, on Millstone. In September, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection provided an update on the zero carbon energy request for proposals, indicating that it intends to announce a decision later this year. The facility's existing PPA has delivered tremendous value to customers, lower costs and significantly reduced volatility.

Despite being priced at the time in 2019 above prevailing price outlooks, the contract is expected to save customers over $245 million this year, including $200 million year-to-date, in addition to the over $200 million in savings to customers last year. Based on current forward curves, the contract is expected to save customers in Connecticut over $900 million over the 10-year life, driven by lower energy pricing. We remain focused on achieving a constructive outcome for the facility, which has delivered tremendous value and produced bill reductions for customers in Connecticut through its existing contract. We will continue to provide updates as things develop.

With that, let me summarize our remarks on Slide 11 by reiterating our focus on our 3 top priorities: consistently achieving our financial commitments; continued achievement of major construction milestones for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project; and achieving constructive regulatory outcomes that demonstrate our ability to work cooperatively with regulators and stakeholders to deliver results that benefit both customers and shareholders. We remain committed to delivering reliable, affordable and increasingly clean power for our customers.

With that, we're ready to take your questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we will take our first question from Shar Pourreza with Wells Fargo.

分析师问答

Shahriar Pourreza

So Bob, just on -- just as we're thinking about the deal and sort of the staff, I mean, 57 conditions. I guess, can you highlight where you and the staff are kind of furthest apart? What's the deal breaker? Is it, like, the ring-fencing? Is it the dividend restrictions? Can you close any of these gaps before the hearings next month? And then maybe just lastly, comment on the governor's intervention, which kind of seems a little bit excessive to us. How is that dialogue going?

Robert Blue

Yes, Shar, great question. 57 conditions, a chunk of them are conditions that were ones that we had already voluntarily proposed. So I think it's important to keep that in mind.

But fundamentally, as you heard from John on NextEra's call a week or so ago, we're still focused on the statutory standard, which is no harm. That's what the judges are going to follow. We'll file our rebuttal testimony on Monday. Look forward to the hearing beginning on the 17th of November.

And we remain confident that our position goes beyond the statutory standard, will deliver benefits, not just no harm to Virginia customers, to employees and communities. It's going to keep our company locally led, still regulated by the SEC, fully accountable to them. John said it on their call, the judges of the SCC are going to follow the law. That's the best that we could possibly ask for. And we look forward to presenting our rebuttal testimony on Monday.

Shahriar Pourreza

Got it. And then just the governor, how is that dialogue going? Just, I guess, I don't want to say behind closed doors, but is what we're seeing publicly different than what conversations you're having privately?

Robert Blue

Well, the governor is participating as an intervenor in the case as she is obviously entitled to do, and we welcomed her intervention. We're participating in the case through the filings that we make in the case. We obviously talk to parties as makes sense. But really, our focus right now is the testimony that we're filing on Monday, making sure that we're all very focused on the no harm legal standard.

Shahriar Pourreza

Got it. Perfect. And then just lastly, on CVOW, I mean, obviously, we saw a little bit of a healthy drop in the LCOE to $62. Obviously, a lot of that was driven by RECs going to $38. I guess, what are you seeing in the RECs market that drive that? And is sort of $38 kind of sustainable in your view?

Steven Ridge

Sure. It's Steve. It's hard to predict the price. We obviously reflect it quarterly when we update the filing, and very transparent about it. What we're seeing is a tightening of supply and demand, sort of unsurprisingly. And remember that a large portion of those RECs need to be generated by Virginia resources. And so that obviously adds an additional constraint, which pushes prices up. And remember, the way that math works is that we credit the revenue from those REC-generated sales by CVOW against the LCOE. That's why you see that price come down.

But we've seen it kind of go up and down. It was a little higher. Now it's back down a little lower in terms of the LCOE. I think the most important thing is we continue to believe CVOW will provide significant value to our customers.

Operator

Our next question comes from Nicholas Campanella with Barclays.

Nicholas Campanella

Maybe just sticking with the merger, similar question just on South Carolina. Any reactions to testimony there that recently came in? Is there a path forward to settle South Carolina? And any thoughts on just the bill credit, 4 years versus 2 years?

Robert Blue

Yes. I'll give a similar answer, Nick, to the question I gave on Virginia. We're in the process, in the regulatory process there. We continue to work our way through. You all have the procedural time lines in front of you. Next step for us is for us to file our rebuttal testimony and then go into the hearing.

We continue to believe that we've presented a very strong package in South Carolina the same way we did in Virginia, and we look forward to an opportunity to demonstrate that to the commission. Obviously, we work with parties in all the states and all the regulatory proceedings that we're involved in to try to find a good outcome.

Nicholas Campanella

Okay. And then maybe moving to Millstone. I know you're saying there's a decision here potentially by year-end. Can you just remind folks of the general time line? Do you get term and price by then? Or is that just that Millstone could have been selected as part of this wider process? Maybe just a little mark-to-market on those discussions.

Steven Ridge

Nick, we're encouraged and constructively engaged with the parties in that process. A little difficult to say with certainty as to sort of what would be public at the end of the year. We don't -- certainly don't want to speak for or get ahead of the regulators in this case. But I do think we'll feel like we've got a little bit better sense of where that process is going by the end of the year. And then of course, as we have announcements to make, we'll be excited to make that public to folks.

Operator

Our next question is from Paul Zimbardo with Jefferies. We'll move to our next question from Anthony Crowdell with Mizuho.

Anthony Crowdell

How about now? Can you hear me? Sorry, has that worked?

Robert Blue

Yes, it works. We were starting to get a little worried there.

Anthony Crowdell

I know. I think Paul is out trick or treating. So he's just probably getting his last candy.

Robert Blue

We're glad to know you waited until the call was over.

Anthony Crowdell

I just have one quick question. You guys gave great clarity on CVOW, continuing to derisk it, I think you're 85% complete. I think maybe it's more of a sector-wide question. The sector is now approaching some large generating project construction. You guys have clearly plowed through this project, which is maybe one of the bigger ones going across the country.

I guess, how should investors think about execution risk across the sector as we're starting to see utilities pursue like larger generating units? You guys have plowed through it, you continue to derisk it. But I don't know if it's lessons learned or something, or what would you tell us we should focus on as you guys are successful with CVOW and we're seeing now other utilities go down this path?

Robert Blue

Yes, that's a great question, Anthony. And I wouldn't limit our experience just to CVOW. It hasn't been that long since we finished some sizable combined cycles here in Virginia. And our focus is having an experienced project construction team that is working with contractors that we have familiarity with. They know the risks to look at. Our Board has become quite comfortable asking us questions about the risks that we should be focused on. Not surprisingly, those line up often around what are your potential labor constraints, how does the supply chain look, and having familiarity with all of that is really valuable.

So at least in our case, we're comforted by the fact that we have an experienced team that has handled big projects. Not just on the gen side, by the way, but on the transmission side of the house as well because we've done an awful lot of that work over the last few years to put that experienced team, combined with strong counterparties where we have confidence in the supply chain.

And then finally, familiarity with the permitting process. I mean, I think we all know that there could be challenges in these projects when permits get off track. And so having the relationships necessary in order to work your way through the permitting process is critical as well.

Operator

Our next question is from Carly Davenport with Goldman Sachs.

Carly Davenport

Maybe just to go back to CVOW. I appreciate the time from jack up to jack down is tracking in line with your expectations. I guess, could you just help us think about the other items that can impact the overall timing and how you expect those to trend as we look over the next few months just as we think about weather, et cetera, moving towards the end of the year?

Robert Blue

Yes. I mean, beyond the jack up to jack down time, other factors that we think about that we've identified are weather, maintenance, transit and loadout time. We've made assumptions regarding weather. We don't have the ability to control that, obviously. And then on the other items, our loadout times continue to improve. Our transit times are defined by where we're going on the project. And I think the team has put together a very good schedule to minimize those transit times so that we are putting turbines up close to each other rather than crisscrossing across the project. And maintenance is a factor that we put in, and everything gets a little bit better as we move along.

So if you think about, Carly, when everything we've done on this project, we get quite a bit faster as we go along. Just give you a few statistics on the installation time. So our first 10 turbines took an average of 69 hours each to install. The next 25 took an average of 45 hours, so that's a 35% improvement. And then the most recent 9 averaged 38 hours, which is a 45% improvement to the first 10.

So we're improving on the installations of turbines the same way we improved our timing on monopiles, the same way we improved our timing on transition pieces. As I mentioned, we continue to get faster on the turns at port. Obviously, we don't do as many of those because we're loading 4 turbines each time. But we're getting faster with that as well. I think our plan is good on transit time. And any maintenance we have to do, if we've done it before, it will be faster the next time we do it, as we found going along.

Steven Ridge

Carly, I think it's a really fair question. If I can put some numbers around what I think you're asking about, in addition to the great answer Bob just provided. If you think about the last 3 months, we had about 91 days in that period. 14 were impacted by weather and about 36 by the vessel maintenance we've described, which means we installed about 13 turbines over about 41 available days, which equates to about 3.2 calendar days per turbine, which again is a little higher than the 2 because that doesn't include transit. And looking forward, we have about 425 calendar days left through the end of '27 to install the remaining 132 turbines, which, by coincidence, is also 3.2 days per turbine.

And I think what's important to note, as Bob just mentioned, is the timing for the jack up and jack down, even though our base assumption is 2 days, as he just mentioned, our most recent 9 have been closer to 1.5 days. If you were at 1.5 days, you'd be able to do the remaining turbine installations in about 200 days. If you stayed that 2 days per turbine, you'd be 265. And we expect about 33 of those loadouts at the port, each take about 4 days or 130 days in total.

So if you put all that together, 427 days, 200 to 265 days for turbine installation, 130 days for port turns, that leaves somewhere between 30 and 95 days for weather, maintenance and if you need more time for some of the more difficult locations for turbine installation. So I think that gives folks a little bit of a sense of sort of how much contingency is in the plan from a timing perspective, and that's what gives us that confidence. In addition to what Bob described, which is as we go through the various iterations of construction, it gets faster every single time.

Carly Davenport

Great. That's incredibly helpful context. And then the follow-up is just a housekeeping item. It looks like just for the 4Q drivers, O&M has shifted from being a drag to a help. Anything in particular that you flag as driving that? And is there any read-through on that into 2027 O&M trends with that in mind?

Steven Ridge

No, Carly, nothing specific. We obviously reevaluate those drivers quarter-by-quarter to reflect the latest perspective on the forecast. I would say we gave our guidance to be in the top half, and I think I put in my prepared remarks that, that includes some conservatism around November and December weather, as well as potential opportunities to derisk financial performance. So we're going to have that lever available to us as we go out to the last 2 months of the year to make sure we land solidly where our guidance is, updated guidance, but also take steps necessary to derisk future years.

Operator

Our next question comes from Paul Zimbardo with Jefferies.

Paul Zimbardo

I'm back. I think Anthony was ringing my doorbell, trick or treating.

Robert Blue

Good to hear from you, Paul.

Paul Zimbardo

And I appreciate there's a lot of math in that last answer. So hopefully, an easier one. Could you describe the nuclear upgrade opportunities, more so the regulated fleet, but also the unregulated asset? And just kind of where you are in exploring some of these potential expansions?

Robert Blue

Yes. Paul, good question. We've got some limited opportunities, we think, at Millstone, as we've discussed before. The regulated fleet, we've done a lot of upgrade work over the years. Our focus at the regulated fleet is the investments necessary for subsequent license renewal. We're extending the lives of those plants for another 20 years. So that's really where the work is going on right now. We always look for opportunities for updates where it makes sense we can do it safely within the appropriate safety margin.

Paul Zimbardo

Okay. Understand that. And then one last on kind of Virginia and the new IRP. I think you mentioned the 4 gigawatts and 2 gigawatts of incremental pull forward. Just -- if you could frame like what could that do to the capital plan, the rate base growth? Any kind of color you could provide there would be helpful.

Steven Ridge

Absolutely, Paul. So if you look at 2025's IRP relative to the latest IRP, it effectively through 2034 increases the battery on the system by about 4x. So for instance, in the 2025 IRP, 2030 through '34, battery was 850 megawatts. In the 2026 update, it's 3.3 gigawatts. And think about the capital cycle around that is about a 2-year time frame where you're spending that capital leading up to the actual COD.

So obviously, as we roll forward and pick up '31 in our 5-year plan, we'll be picking up 1 additional year of not just what the existing battery capital opportunity was, but actually this enhanced battery capital opportunity. And we framed that as every gigawatt being sort of $2.5 billion to $3 billion of opportunity.

Now keep in mind, some of the IRP would be under a PPA structure. Obviously, we don't -- wouldn't include that in our rate base, but the majority of it is under self-build, consistent with the Virginia Clean Economy Act. So I think as we think about roll forward, there's a very meaningful opportunity for capital enhancement in order to comply with the legislative and policy intent of the state.

Operator

We will take our next question from Nick Amicucci with Evercore ISI.

Nicholas Amicucci

Sorry, I did want to just kind of revert back to the merger quickly, if I could. There was one point of contention just within the SCC's staff testimony there. And I just wanted to kind of clarify it to understand it, I guess.

Just as we think about the ring-fencing and the bankruptcy remote special purpose vehicle, I guess, what are they really looking for there? Like, I understand kind of like the protection for Dominion. But just, I guess, how would -- how does that structure kind of -- like what should -- how should we think about that structure?

Robert Blue

Yes. Totally understand why you'd ask that question. But as I mentioned, we're working our way through the regulatory process now, which involves filing a rebuttal testimony on Monday and then a hearing just a few weeks away. So we're going to continue to present what we think is a very strong package through that regulatory process. But I can hope you understand why I wouldn't want to be getting into the details of that on the Friday before we file our rebuttal testimony.

Nicholas Amicucci

Very fair. Very fair. And then just wanted to think through to just the funding requirement. Like as we think about that as we move into 2027, just how much flexibility exists if we have some load kind of acceleration and a potential, like, delay in any closing?

Steven Ridge

Are you asking, Nick, about our -- sort of where our 2027 financing needs might be and how that could be impacted?

Nicholas Amicucci

Yes. If you think about it specifically on the equity issuance side.

Steven Ridge

Yes. So when we did our call in the fourth quarter, we gave a 5-year look. And we indicated that from -- at least from an equity perspective, it was very back-end loaded in sort of the last couple of years of our plan. I don't want to get out ahead of our sort of updates to the forecast. But generally speaking, we were seeing '27 and '28 as relatively lighter equity years. And I haven't seen anything that suggests that would be necessarily different.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer session, so I'll turn it back to Bob Blue for closing remarks.

Robert Blue

Thanks, everybody, for taking the time to join the call today. Enjoy the rest of the day. Thanks.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.