Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) executives highlighted improved earnings, top-decile reliability performance, and an expanded multi-year capital plan during the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call. Management also outlined key regulatory milestones ahead in 2026 and discussed financing options tied to storm cost recovery and the pending sale of Aquarion Water.
2025 results: non-GAAP EPS of $4.76 and dividend growth
Chairman, President and CEO Joe Nolan said 2025 marked “another year of strong execution,” pointing to operational performance, infrastructure investment, and efforts with policymakers and regulators to address customer affordability while maintaining reliability.
Executive Vice President and CFO John Moreira reported GAAP earnings of $4.56 per share for 2025, compared with $2.27 per share in 2024. Moreira said 2025 GAAP results included a net loss of $75 million, or $0.20 per share, tied to an increase in the company’s liability for expected future obligations to Global Infrastructure Partners related to the September 2024 sale of South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind projects.
For the fourth quarter, the company posted GAAP and non-GAAP EPS of $1.12, compared with GAAP EPS of $0.20 and non-GAAP EPS of $1.01 in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Moreira also provided segment detail for 2025 on a per-share basis:
- Electric transmission: $2.09 vs. $2.03 in 2024, driven by continued transmission investments for reliability and demand growth.
- Electric distribution: $1.80 vs. $1.77, reflecting base distribution rate increases in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, partly offset by higher O&M, interest, depreciation, and property taxes.
- Natural gas distribution: $0.97 vs. $0.81, helped by base rate increases and system investment, partly offset by higher O&M (including a $12.2 million charge tied to NSTAR Gas’s settlement with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office in December 2025) and higher depreciation, interest, and taxes.
- Parent and Other: a GAAP loss of $0.42 per share in 2025, compared with a GAAP loss of $2.46 in 2024; on a non-GAAP basis, a loss of $0.22 compared with a $0.16 loss in 2024, primarily reflecting higher interest costs, offset by settlement-related benefits and a lower effective tax rate.
Operational performance and major projects
Nolan said Eversource delivered high levels of service reliability and responded to “several significant weather events,” with top-decile performance on both MBI and SAIDI metrics. He said electric customers, on average, experienced an outage “only once in nearly two years.”
The company deployed more than $4 billion of capital in 2025, advancing grid modernization and energy efficiency programs, and continuing work tied to decarbonization goals, management said.
Nolan cited progress on advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in Massachusetts, noting the program surpassed 100,000 smart meter installations toward a broader effort to upgrade more than 1.5 million meters statewide.
He also discussed several large initiatives and developments:
- Cambridge Underground Substation: Nolan said Eversource broke ground in January 2025 on the $1.8 billion project, which he described as the largest underground substation in the U.S., and said construction is progressing well.
- Revolution Wind: Eversource completed construction of the onshore substation late in 2025. Nolan cited Ørsted’s recent update that the project is expected to achieve first power “within the coming weeks,” and that construction has resumed following a preliminary injunction related to a stop-work order, with the project described as 87% complete. Nolan said Eversource did not need to change the contingent liability recorded in the third quarter of 2025 based on updated construction and cost estimates.
Capital plan raised to $26.5 billion and rate base growth outlook
Moreira outlined an updated five-year capital plan for 2026 through 2030 totaling approximately $26.5 billion for regulated electric and natural gas businesses, a $2.3 billion increase versus the prior five-year plan. He emphasized the plan includes projects with “a clear line of sight” on regulatory approvals. The total does not include Aquarion Water, which he said would add $1.3 billion over the same five-year period.
For the overlapping period of 2026 through 2029, the plan is up $1.5 billion, with the largest drivers described as:
- Electric distribution: +$696 million, reflecting more than $11 billion of distribution investments focused on resiliency and reliability, driven by the Massachusetts Electric Sector Modernization Plan and more than $300 million remaining for AMI in Massachusetts.
- Natural gas distribution: +$523 million, bringing the gas plan to nearly $7 billion, including costs tied to recently effective mandatory safety regulations (about 25% of the growth in the gas plan).
- Transmission: +$233 million, with more than $7 billion planned over five years for aging infrastructure replacement, resiliency, and load growth.
- Technology and facilities: +$75 million, taking that category to $1.2 billion including cybersecurity and AI tools.
Moreira said the updated capital plan implies 8.3% rate base growth from 2024 through 2030.
Regulatory milestones: rate mechanisms, storm costs, and Aquarion uncertainty
Management described multiple regulatory items across Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. In Massachusetts, Moreira said Eversource received approval for performance-based regulation (PBR) rate adjustments: a $55 million increase for NSTAR Electric implemented Jan. 1, 2026, and a $10 million increase for NSTAR Gas effective Nov. 1, 2025.
Moreira said Massachusetts also approved a settlement allowing recovery of $82 million of EGMA acquisition and integration costs over 10 years, to be implemented in the next EGMA rate case. A separate settlement on pension and other deferred items will result in a one-time bill credit of approximately $20 million for NSTAR Electric customers in 2026, with the impact recognized in the fourth quarter of 2025. He also cited a DPU-approved settlement for an NSTAR Gas rate base roll-in that resulted in a $45 million base rate increase and a one-time customer credit of $12.2 million effective in 2026.
In Connecticut, Nolan and Moreira focused on Aquarion Water and storm cost recovery. The company reached an agreement in 2024 to sell Aquarion, but PURA initially denied the sale. Moreira said the Connecticut Superior Court overturned PURA’s denial in January and remanded the matter back to PURA, finding PURA lacked authority to reject the legislatively mandated governance structure of the Aquarion Water Authority. PURA’s revised schedule calls for a final decision on March 25.
Given uncertainty, Moreira said Eversource submitted a notice of intent to file a rate case for Aquarion, seeking a preliminary request for $88 million in additional revenues if the sale is not approved.
On storm costs, Nolan said Eversource expects a decision from PURA on Connecticut storm cost prudency in July, which would allow the company to begin the legislatively backed securitization process. Moreira later indicated securitization cash proceeds would likely arrive in Q3 2027 and could total up to $1.5 billion.
During Q&A, Nolan clarified that Eversource’s obligation related to Revolution Wind is to Global Infrastructure Partners, not Ørsted.
2026 EPS guidance and funding strategy
Moreira issued 2026 EPS guidance of $4.80 to $4.95. He said guidance does not assume the Aquarion sale will occur and therefore includes water segment earnings. Management characterized 2026 growth as more moderate due to the timing of key regulatory outcomes, including Aquarion, storm cost recovery in Connecticut and New Hampshire, and other items.
Moreira said expected positives for 2026 include transmission investment, distribution rate increases through PBR mechanisms in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and O&M management. Offsetting factors include higher depreciation and property taxes from increased investment, higher interest expense, share dilution, and a higher effective tax rate.
On the five-year financing plan, Moreira said the company expects total cash needs of roughly $34.5 billion to $35 billion, including infrastructure investment and dividends of $6.7 billion to $7.2 billion. Cash from operations is expected to be $24.2 billion to $24.7 billion, funding nearly 70% of needs. The remainder includes:
- $8.5 billion to $9 billion from incremental debt and other financing solutions, including alternatives such as junior subordinated notes and structured transactions with equity content of $1.3 billion to $2.5 billion.
- Equity issuance of roughly $800 million to $1.1 billion, which Moreira said is not impacted by whether Aquarion is sold.
Moreira said Eversource improved its balance sheet metrics in 2025, citing more than 400 basis points of improvement in FFO-to-debt at Moody’s and 300 basis points of improvement at S&P. He said the financing plan is designed to maintain at least a 100-basis-point cushion above downgrade thresholds each year, assuming no Aquarion sale.
Looking beyond 2026, management said it expects an earnings growth inflection in 2027 and 2028 tied to regulatory outcomes, storm cost recovery, completion of alternative financing actions, and distribution rate adjustments, including the expected outcome of a CL&P rate request in 2027. Moreira reiterated the company’s long-term EPS growth expectation of 5% to 7% based on 2025 non-GAAP recurring EPS of $4.76, and he said the company expects to trend toward the upper half of that range by 2028, based off expected 2027 results.
About Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES)
Eversource Energy (NYSE: ES) is a publicly traded, regulated energy company headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut. The company’s core business is the delivery and transmission of electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers across parts of New England. Eversource operates transmission and distribution networks, maintains electrical infrastructure, responds to outages and storms, and manages natural gas pipeline and distribution systems in the regions it serves.
Eversource serves customers primarily in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, operating through locally regulated utility subsidiaries that administer customer service, billing, meter reading and localized operations.
