RALEIGH — A North Carolina Court of Appeals decision found that the North Carolina Utilities Commission improperly approved a rate increase for Duke Energy Carolinas customers in 2024, but a new law means customers can’t recover those costs.
The rate at the heart of this case is the annual fuel rider. Every year, the NCUC approves a fuel rider for our bills based on how much Duke Energy over or underspent on fuels and fuel-related costs in the previous year and how much they anticipate spending in the upcoming year.
In the 2023 fuel rider-rate case, Duke Energy reported $988M in under recoveries from 2022, a year in which natural gas costs reached a 14-year high. The 2023 rates were set in the hopes of recovering those losses but by the end of the year, Duke Energy reported an additional $8M in under recoveries.
In the 2024 fuel rider-rate case, Duke Energy requested a rate that combined the $8M in under recoveries from 2022 to $11.1M in under recoveries from 2023. The NCUC approved this request.
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Public Staff, the independent representative for ratepayers in NCUC cases, appealed the decision claiming Duke Energy should not be able to look back further than one year in determining the appropriate fuel rider rate.
The Court of Appeals agreed, but while the Public Staff requested a refund for customers, the court declined, citing a 2025 law, SB 266, the Power Bill Reduction Act, that now allows Duke Energy to make multi-year recoveries. In their reasoning, the court explained if customers got a refund, Duke Energy could once again add those losses to future rate cases making up the difference again.
We spoke with a Duke Energy spokesman who said the case was never a matter of whether or not those rates were prudent for cost recovery but whether the company could change the rates at that specific time.