Duke Energy has been named one of the World’s Most Admired Companies for 2026 by Fortune magazine. The company moved up to third place among electric and gas utilities, an improvement from last year’s fourth-place ranking. This marks Duke Energy’s ninth consecutive year on the list.
Fortune’s annual rankings are based on surveys of thousands of executives, directors, and industry analysts. The surveys evaluate companies across nine reputation criteria such as innovation, financial soundness, quality of products and services, and global competitiveness.
Duke Energy is now ranked third out of fifteen electric and gas utilities and has remained in the top four for five years in a row. The company also improved its industry ranking across almost every key attribute measured by Fortune.
“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,” said Harry Sideris, president and CEO of Duke Energy. “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 highlighted several areas that contributed to its strong reputation:
– Smart grid technology helped prevent 2.2 million customer outages in 2025, saving a total of 5.2 million hours in outage time across its six-state service area.
– Nearly three-quarters of Duke Energy customers benefit from self-healing grid technology.
– Since 2016, Duke Energy Foundation along with Duke Energy employees have invested more than $34 million in nonprofits supporting community resilience, emergency preparedness, and disaster relief.
– 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 efforts aimed at improving reliability and contributing to system decarbonization.
Duke Energy is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It serves about 8.6 million electric utility customers across six states—North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky—and owns a total energy capacity of approximately 55 gigawatts. Its natural gas utilities serve about 1.7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.
The company continues its focus on modernizing infrastructure while maintaining customer reliability during an ongoing transition toward cleaner energy sources such as natural gas, nuclear power plants and renewables.
For more information about Duke Energy’s operations or recent initiatives visit their News Center or follow them on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn or Facebook.
