Oncor’s capital expenditures totaled $2.5 billion in 2021, and it anticipates further capital expenditures of $2.8 billion to $3 billion in 2022.
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Oncor Electric received net income of $770 million during the 2021 calendar year, as compared to net income of $713 million for 2021. Oncor attributes the $57 million year-over-year increase to both a rise in invested capital as well as the addition of approximately 70,000 additional premises to its system during 2021.
Those were among some of the financial results detailed by Oncor, the state’s largest transmission-and-distribution electric utility, in a recent report for investment analysts. Officials also summarized some of the company’s activities during 2021, as well as its projections for future earnings, expenditures and growth.
Highlights from that February 25 financial release include:
- Oncor’s total distribution base revenues increased 2.8 percent (2.5 percent on a weather-normalized basis) during 2021, as compared to distribution base revenues in 2020. A two-percent increase in revenues from residential customers (1.3 percent on a weather-normalized basis) as well as a revenue increase from commercial and industrial customers of 3.9 percent contributed to the change.
- Oncor reports that in 2021 it built or updated more than 1,800 miles of transmission and distribution lines, and built 22 new switching stations. By the end of 2021, it had approximately 400 active interconnection requests in queue as compared to approximately 290 in queue at the end of 2020. That represents a year-over-year increase of nearly 40 percent. Utility-scale generation activity — including activity related to the renewable energy and utility-scale battery storage markets — drove much of that interconnection growth. Oncor noted that of the interconnection requests in queue at the end of 2021, 51 percent were for solar generation, 29 percent for storage, 14 percent for wind and 5 percent for gas generation.
- In far West Texas, Oncor completed Phase I and Phase II of its ongoing 138-kilovolt and 345-kilovolt transmission projects. Oncor reports that those projects should strengthen and improve load-serving capability in West Texas, where peak-electricity demand increased year-over-year by 14 percent.
- In accordance with legislation adopted in the wake of last year’s statewide power outages, Oncor reported that it acquired approximately 10 megawatts of leased mobile-generation units during 2021. Under the provisions of new Texas law, transmission and distribution utilities may lease such units for emergency use, and include the associated costs in rates. By the end of2022, Oncor anticipates having 30 to 50 megawatts of leased mobile generation available for emergencies.
LOOKING AHEAD
- Oncor’s capital expenditures totaled $2.5 billion in 2021, and it anticipates further capital expenditures of $2.8 billion to $3 billion in 2022. Oncor management expects capital expenditures of $3 billion to $3.1 billion in each of the years 2023 through 2026 for an aggregate 2022-2026 five-year capital plan projection of approximately $15 billion. Oncor expects it will recover approximately 97 percent of its capital expenditures through interim rate proceedings, such as Distribution Cost Recovery Factor proceedings.
- Oncor management expects an eight percent compound annual growth in its rate base through 2026. Oncor bases those projections on a rate base of $18.9 billion in 2021; and projected rate base estimates of $20.6 billion in 2022, $22.3 billion in 2023, $24.1 billion in 2024, $25.9 billion in 2025 and $27.6 billion in 2026.
Headquartered in Dallas, Oncor Electric operates the largest distribution and transmission system in Texas. Oncor delivers power to more than 3.8 million homes and businesses and operates more than 140,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines. The utility has two owners — majority-owner Sempra and minority-owner Texas Transmission Investment — although an independent board manages the utility.