Duke Energy has been named one of Fortune magazine’s World’s Most Admired Companies for 2026, moving up to the No. 3 spot among electric and gas utilities. This marks the ninth consecutive year Duke Energy has appeared on the list and its fifth straight year in the top four utilities.
Fortune’s rankings are based on surveys from executives, directors, and industry analysts who assess companies across nine reputation criteria such as innovation, financial soundness, product quality, and global competitiveness.
Harry Sideris, president and CEO of Duke Energy, commented on the recognition: “This recognition reflects the trust we’ve earned from our customers by delivering reliable energy today, while forging into the future with innovative solutions, smarter grids, and next-generation technology, all while keeping costs as low as possible. I’m incredibly proud of our employees, whose leadership and commitment continue to move our company and the communities we serve forward as we meet this moment of growing energy demand.”
Duke Energy attributes its improved ranking to advancements in several areas:
– Reliability: The company’s self-healing grid technology prevented 2.2 million customer outages in 2025 and saved a total of 5.2 million hours of outage time across its six-state service area. Nearly three-quarters of customers now benefit from this technology.
– Resilience: Since 2016, Duke Energy Foundation along with Duke Energy employees have invested over $34.2 million in nonprofits focused on community resilience, emergency preparedness, and disaster relief.
– Future infrastructure: Over the next five years, Duke Energy plans to add more than 13 gigawatts of new generation capacity—enough to power nearly 10 million homes—and invest over $35 billion in grid modernization projects that support reliability and customer value while advancing system decarbonization.
Duke Energy is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Its electric utilities serve approximately 8.6 million customers across six states—North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky—and operate about 55,100 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas operations reach about 1.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.
The company continues efforts toward an energy transition that emphasizes reliability for customers while investing in cleaner generation sources such as natural gas plants https://www.duke-energy.com/our-company/about-us/businesses/natural-gas , nuclear facilities https://www.duke-energy.com/energy-education/how-energy-works/nuclear-power-plants , renewables https://www.duke-energy.com/our-company/environment/renewable-energy , and energy storage technologies https://news.duke-energy.com/releases/duke-energy-opens-one-of-the-nations-largest-battery-storage-projects-in-florida .
For more information about Duke Energy’s initiatives or corporate updates visit duke-energy.com or follow their official channels including X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn or Facebook.
