Customers push back against proposed 15% Duke Carolinas rate hike

RALEIGH — Duke Energy Carolinas customers from across the state are weighing in on a planned 15% average increase in energy rates over the next two years.

The company says the increase is needed to cover the cost of modernizing the grid and preparing to serve a growing customer base. However, many ratepayers say the cost of energy is already unaffordable.

Broken down by customer type, residential customers are seeing the largest spike. They’re expected to pay 13.5% more starting January 1, 2027 and then an additional 4.5% in 2028.

Lauren Carlin, a customer living in Hendersonville, said her winter bills are getting to be unmanageable under the current rate structure.

“We live in a very small house, about 1,000 square feet. We do not have central heat and air, we use window units and baseboard heat to heat and cool our home,” she said. “We have been saving for years to try to install more energy-efficient units, but you know, that hasn’t been possible.”

Many homes across the state are in a similar situation, inefficient heating and cooling systems use a lot of power, waste energy and cost families a lot of money, especially during the winter when energy use spikes and so does the cost of the fuel to produce it. While Carlin said she knows energy efficiency upgrades could help, she can’t save for them while paying for the rising cost of living.

“We have to make choices and sacrifices, decide where we’re going to put our money and what things is going to go towards,” she said. “Usually, home repairs are the things that get sacrificed for us.”

That’s why she chose to speak at a Tuesday hearing, asking the North Carolina Utilities Commission not to approve Duke’s requested rate increase.

The NCUC can choose to deny or alter a rate increase request, if it finds the request does not prudently represent utility’s needs to serve customers reliably.

A Duke Energy spokesman said this requested increase is part of a pattern companies across the country are facing as energy needs rise everywhere. He said Duke Energy specifically needs this increase to cover the cost of building and improving transmission infrastructure to serve a large spike in demand from incoming customers in the growing region.

“Energy modernization has a cost that’s impacting all utilities nationwide,” he said. “We see it all across the country, and all utility customers are feeling it.”

He also said Duke Energy is doing everything it can to keep costs down by looking for alternative funding sources to cover new infrastructure and power plants.

“In the Carolinas, we’re in a stronger position than most, because our rates remain below the national average,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to ensure that remains the case, by managing our costs, by taking full advantage of federal funding such as nuclear production tax credits, other tax incentives to help offset, you know, battery infrastructure, anything that we can do to offset costs for our customers, that’s what we’re trying to deliver.”

Meech Carter, with the League of Conservation Voters of North Carolina, believes Duke Energy isn’t being creative enough, especially with the projects they’re choosing to build.

“They’re incentivized to build very large, very costly power plants, like gas plants, nuclear plants and more,” she said.

She believes more investment in renewables, particularly battery storage can help keep fuel costs down by offsetting those winter peaks that force the grid to rely on natural gas when it tends to be at its priciest.

She also believes reducing demand by offering help to more families like Carlin’s can make a big difference across the grid. The less power they use, the less customers have to pay for and the less Duke has to produce.

“At the end of the day, the cheapest form of energy is energy that we don’t use,” she said.

Hearings will continue over the next few weeks. The Mecklenburg County Courthouse will host an in-person rate case hearing on April 29. The final hearing will be in Durham on May 12.

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