US power utility NextEra Energy recorded a 9.5% increase in its net earnings in Q2 2026, as the company advanced its plan to merge with Dominion Energy to form the world’s largest regulated power utility.
In the second quarter of 2026, NextEra Energy reported US$2.407 billion in earnings, compared with US$2.164 billion in Q2 2025. Net income was US$3.144 billion, up from US$2.08 billion in the equivalent period last year. Earnings per share amounted to US$1.15, up from US$1.05 in Q2 2025.
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Both income and earnings were up compared with Q1 2026, when the company recorded US$2.128 billion and US$2.275 billion, respectively.
Both the firm’s subsidiaries recorded increased income. Florida Power & Light (FPL), its regional utility business in the south-east US, reported second quarter net income of US$1.412 billion, compared with US$1.257 billion in Q2 2025. The company said FPL’s growth was “driven primarily by continued disciplined capital investments”.
In the Q2 earnings call, NextEra CEO John Ketchum said that the Florida energy market “remains one of the fastest growing in the nation” and said FPL intends to meet the growth in demand while offering “consistently low bills”. He added that the utility remains “on track to meet our full-year expectations to install approximately 900MW of solar and over 1.4GW of battery storage”.
Its renewable energy development subsidiary, NextEra Energy Resources, reported Q2 income of US$1.634 billion, up from US$983 million in Q2 2025. The company’s earnings were US$1.291 billion, compared with US$1.091 billion in Q2 2025.
NextEra Energy Resources added 3.6GW of new clean energy capacity to its backlog, 2GW of which were battery energy storage additions. The company said its renewables backlog now amounts to around 35.1GW, while its natural gas pipeline amounts to around 20GW.
The company also energised a 137-mile, 345kW transmission line in New Mexico during the quarter, and “remains on track” to bring the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in Iowa back online.
“NextEra Energy delivered a strong second quarter, with adjusted earnings per share increasing by 9.5% year-over-year, reflecting continued operational and financial execution across both FPL and NextEra Energy Resources,” said Ketchum.
Dominion Energy merger
Earlier this year, NextEra unveiled plans to merge its business with Dominion Energy, another US power utility whose major markets include the Carolinas, Virginia and Florida. The resulting company will reportedly be the largest regulated utility in the world. Earlier this month, the companies submitted their applications to state and federal governments seeking approval for their plans.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2027, and NextEra said the resulting company will support “approximately 11% annual growth” in regulated capital deployed through 2032 and a 9% adjusted earnings per share growth over the same period.
“This combination is about putting greater scale, financial strength and operational expertise behind Dominion Energy’s local operating companies so they can meet growing power demand while keeping bills affordable and service reliable,” said Ketchum.
“We’re putting a larger NextEra Energy platform behind Dominion Energy at the exact time when scale matters more than ever to face a set of challenges unlike anything the utility industry has seen in decades,” he continued.
The expansion of data centres in the US, alongside increasing electrification, is forecast to cause a major increase in energy demand in the coming years.
“Simply put, combining NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy would drive affordability, create local jobs and deliver all forms of energy infrastructure—including battery storage—by leveraging the strengths of two industry leaders and sharing best practices in grid modernisation, storm restoration, customer service, workforce tools, data analytics, artificial intelligence and process improvement, just to name a few,” Ketchum said.
However, some have expressed concern about the size and influence of the combined NextEra/Dominion utility. Following the announcement, groups including Secure Solar Futures, Public Citizen and Clean Virginia warned that the merger could give excessive political and economic power to the utility.
The groups urged lawmakers to install “strong protections” to ensure that bills in Florida, Virginia and the Carolinas remain affordable and transparent. With forecast growth from data centres calling for new energy generation capacity, they said that regulators should “use this moment to explore how a transformed utility model could accelerate grid optimisation” through distributed energy, energy storage and renewables, as well as digital measures that can reduce energy bills.
NextEra and Dominion Energy said they would offer US$2.25 billion in bill credits to customers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina for two years after the deal closes.
