SerpApi.Org
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson is refusing to join Duke Energy Carolinas’ proposed rate settlement, arguing the utility should further reduce a residential increase that has already been cut nearly in half from its original request.
Jackson announced Tuesday that his office would continue challenging Duke’s request before the North Carolina Utilities Commission rather than sign onto the agreement reached between the utility, the North Carolina Public Staff and several other parties. While he praised parts of the proposed settlement, including new discussions over data center costs and a lower profit rate for Duke, Jackson said the proposed 9.5% residential increase over two years remains too high.
“Duke started this case asking families for an 18% increase,” Jackson said in a statement. “We pushed back, and now its own filing shows 9.5%. That is movement in the right direction, but it is still too high. We are not joining this deal, and we will keep pushing for lower rates.”
Duke originally sought an approximately 18% residential increase when it filed the case last November, prompting criticism that North Carolinians could not absorb another jump in utility bills. Jackson has been among the utility’s most vocal critics throughout the case. Earlier this year, he urged regulators to reject Duke’s proposed return on equity, the profit rate the company is allowed to earn, arguing the request would unnecessarily increase customers’ bills.
Last week, Duke and the Public Staff, the state agency charged with representing utility customers, announced a comprehensive settlement that would reduce the proposed residential increase to 9.5% over two years if approved by regulators. The agreement also lowered Duke’s proposed return on equity from its original request of 10.95% to 9.8%.
Jackson said those changes do not go far enough.
His office’s expert testimony supported a 7.4% return on equity, which Jackson said would save Duke customers an estimated $1.37 billion over the next two years. The proposed settlement’s 9.8% return remains well above that recommendation, according to the attorney general.
Jackson also disputed Duke’s characterization of the agreement as an average annual increase of 3.7% over two years, since that is the averaged proposed rate among all customers, not just residential. Duke has said the settlement would raise residential rates 5.9% in the first year and 3.6% in the second year, for a cumulative increase of 9.5%.
Beyond rates, Jackson said the settlement makes progress toward one of his office’s biggest concerns: ensuring data centers costs are not shifted onto residential customers. Under the agreement, Duke would participate in a separate process to create rules for who pays infrastructure costs for large energy users such as data centers.
Jackson called that development encouraging but said key questions remain unresolved.
The NCUC will ultimately decide whether to approve the settlement after reviewing testimony from all parties. If approved, the new residential rates would take effect Jan. 1.
“My job as attorney general is to represent you,” Jackson said in a video posted on social media Tuesday. “We think they can come down significantly and still meet demand.”
Gov. Josh Stein echoed Jackson’s criticism of the proposal and urged regulators to require data centers to shoulder more of the costs associated with the infrastructure needed to serve them.
“While this settlement improves upon Duke’s initial request, it still asks too much of North Carolinians struggling to make ends meet,” Stein said in a statement provided to The Charlotte Observer. “These are some of the largest and richest companies in the world. They can pay more to lower everyone else’s rates.”
