Consolidated Edison Boosts Grid Investment and Clean Energy Growth

Consolidated Edison’s ED capital investment program is expected to strengthen its core infrastructure and operational capabilities, leading to improved service reliability for customers and greater resilience against system stresses.

However, this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company faces risks related to regulator-approved rate plans.

Factors in Favor of ED Stock

Consolidated Edison continues to follow a systematic capital investment plan for infrastructure development and maintain the reliability of its electric, gas and steam delivery systems. Evidently, the company spent capital worth $5 billion in 2025, up from last year’s level of $4.73 billion. The company has a robust capital expenditure plan of $38 billion for the 2026-2030 period. Over the next 10 years, it aims to invest $72 billion in significant energy infrastructure. Such investments should enable Consolidated Edison to provide reliable, resilient, safe and clean energy to its customers in New York.

Through these investments and the aforementioned renewable energy development, the company aims to build an energy grid that will deliver reliable, clean energy and meet its customers’ electrification needs. Such initiatives should enable Consolidated Edison to meet its net-zero carbon emission goal by 2050.

With industries across the board rapidly adopting clean energy as their preferred choice of energy source, utility providers like Consolidated Edison are expanding their renewable energy portfolio to earn the economic and environmental, social and governance incentives offered by the utility-scale renewable energy market.

Headwinds for ED Stock

The company operates under rate plans approved by state utility regulators, which set limits on the rates it can charge customers. These rate plans are meant to help the utility companies recover their service costs, including a return on equity, but they do not ensure full recovery.

The company’s actual costs can sometimes be higher than the amounts allowed in the rate plans. Regulators may also review whether certain costs, such as energy or storm restoration expenses, were incurred prudently. If the regulators decide that any costs were not prudent, the companies may not be allowed to recover those amounts from customers.

ED’s Share Price Performance

In the past three months, shares of the company have risen 16.7% compared with the industry’s 6% growth.

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks from the same industry are NiSource NI, The AES Corporation AES and Entergy Corporation ETR, each carrying a Zacks Rank of 2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

NiSource’s long-term (three to five years) earnings growth rate is 5.97%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NI’s 2026 earnings per share (EPS) implies an improvement of 7.9% year over year. 

AES’ long-term earnings growth rate is 11.17%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 14.7% in the last four quarters.

ETR’s long-term earnings growth rate is 11.5%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ETR’s 2026 EPS implies an improvement of 12.5% year over year. 

 

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research