A trade group representing large industrial utility customers is claiming Duke Energy’s proposed rate hike does not comply with North Carolina state law because it only covers two years.
The Carolina Industrial Group for Fair Utility Rates, or CIGFUR, is asking the North Carolina Utilities Commission to deem Duke Energy’s rate increase application incomplete, or to reject the proposal completely.
Duke Energy’s application, filed with the NCUC on Nov. 20, asks for a 15% rate increase over the next two years. This would apply to Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress, the company’s two utilities in the state.
But this timeline deviates from state law, according to CIGFUR’s NCUC filing Nov. 26.
“HB 951 established a specific three-year rate plan with express guardrails in place that were painstakingly negotiated through a 9-month stakeholder process established by Speaker Hall,” Susan Vick, a registered lobbyist representing CIGFUR, told NC Newsline.
House Bill 951, titled “Energy Solutions for North Carolina,” became law in October 2021.
Vick described the measure as a product of “intense lobbying” by Duke Energy, who wanted quicker cost recovery. The tradeoff the utility agreed to was to give more transparency and certainty to the ratemaking process for consumers.
“That Duke now seeks to unilaterally change the parameters and submit a plan that is different than what HB 951 requires is a concern,” Vick said, “and requires NC industrial customers to weigh in and object.”
Bill Norton, a spokesperson for Duke Energy, told NC Newsline the company is seeking a two-year multiyear rate plan for 2027 through 2028 so that future rate cases align with a planned merger of Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress.
“If that combination is approved by regulators next year, a two-year rate plan enables our customers to start benefitting from the efficiencies of a combined utility sooner, and these will be our final rate cases as separate utilities,” Norton wrote.
Rates for the two utilities would gradually blend over time in future filings after Jan. 1, 2027, subject to approval from the NCUC, according to Norton.
State leaders like Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Gov. Josh Stein have voiced their opposition to Duke Energy’s proposed increases, NC Newsline previously reported.
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