Duke Energy has been named one of the World’s Most Admired Companies for 2026 by Fortune magazine. The company rose to No. 3 among electric and gas utilities on the annual list, up from No. 4 last year, and marks its ninth consecutive appearance.
Fortune’s rankings are based on surveys from thousands of executives, directors, and industry analysts who evaluate companies across nine reputation criteria, such as innovation, financial soundness, quality of products and services, and global competitiveness.
Harry Sideris, president and CEO of Duke Energy, stated: “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.”
The company reported improvements in its ranking across almost every reputation attribute compared to previous years. For the fifth year in a row, Duke Energy is ranked among the top four utilities.
Duke Energy has focused on enhancing reliability through smart grid technology that helped avoid 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 self-healing grid systems.
In terms of resilience efforts, since 2016 Duke Energy Foundation—alongside Duke Energy and its employees—has invested more than $34.2 million in nonprofit initiatives supporting community resilience and disaster relief.
Looking ahead, Duke Energy plans to add over 13 gigawatts of new generation capacity within five years—enough to supply nearly 10 million homes—and intends to invest more than $35 billion in grid modernization projects aimed at supporting reliability, customer value, and system decarbonization.
Duke Energy serves about 8.6 million electric utility customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky; it also provides natural gas services to approximately 1.7 million customers across several states.
Further information about Duke Energy’s operations can be found at duke-energy.com or through their various social media channels.
