NEW HANOVER COUNTY — More than 20 residents gathered at the New Hanover County Courthouse to express concerns about the priorities and costs of Duke Energy’s proposed carbon reduction plan.
READ MORE: Duke Energy proposes 18.7% rate hike over 3 years, public welcome to speak at hearing
A public hearing was held Monday regarding Duke Energy’s carbon reduction roadmap, a plan it’s been working on since 2022.
Most residents and ratepayers who spoke argued Duke’s proposal should include more renewable energy infrastructure to address climate change, stop new natural gas projects, and put less focus on profits to reduce rate hikes for customers.
Chris Carmody, executive director for Carolinas Clean Energy Business Alliance, said there is a common misconception that Duke’s planned investments in renewables have caused recent rate increases. He argued HB 951 — the 2021 state law mandating the carbon plan — has not yet increased infrastructure development funded by rate hikes.
“I’ve seen people, even in industry, say ‘Oh well, it’s because of HB 951 that these rates are going up’,” Carmody told Port City Daily. “It’s not, it’s purely due to gas, because 951 hasn’t really started yet.”
HB 951 requires electric public utilities to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 2005 levels by 2030, but residents at Monday’s hearing argued Duke’s current proposal would fail to meet those goals.
“I strongly urge the commission to oppose the conversion to natural gas,” Wilmington resident Julia Johnson said at the hearing. “This will likely result in an increase in energy rates and increased air pollution, which is highly detrimental to human health and the environment.”
The North Carolina Utilities Commission adopted an initial plan in December 2022, which directed facilities owned or operated by Duke Energy Carolinas LLC and Duke Energy Progress LLC to increase solar and battery storage production and retire coal by 2035. HB 951 directs the commission to review the plan every two years.
Duke submitted its initial updated plan in August 2023, but revised it in January 2024 after finding recent economic development would increase annual electricity demand over previous estimates by 22% in 2030 and 25% in 2035. Duke’s updated filing estimates financing the carbon plan’s new energy production would increase customers’ average monthly bills by over $50 by 2033 and $80 by 2038.
The near-term action plan includes:
- Increasing solar energy by 6,460 megawatts by 2031
- Increasing battery storage by 2,700 MW by 2031
- Expanding hydroelectric storage by 1,834 MW by 2034
- Adding 600 MW of advanced nuclear power by 2035
If requested by the utilities commission, Duke will request pricing and feasibility studies from offshore wind farm leaseholders off the Brunswick County coast, which could generate 2,400 MW of wind energy by 2035.
But the carbon plan’s goals include 8,925 MW in new natural gas production, a major source of contention Monday. It includes an additional 6,800 MW from combustion cycle power plants by 2023 and 2,125 MW in combustion turbine gas by 2031.
Under the state statute, the NC Utilities Commission must receive feedback on Duke’s proposal in public hearings before making a final decision in late 2024 to approve, amend, or reject it. Commissioners Charlotte Mitchell, Kim Duffley, and Floyd McKissick Jr. attended Monday’s hearing, the fourth of five public witness meetings this month.
Speakers argued renewables have more long-term financial feasibility than new fossil fuel projects, citing costs of coastal insurance rates and environmental degradation.
“In September 2022 my home insurance was $1,261,” Wilmington resident Sean Mulligan said at the hearing. “One year later, the reported price had gone to $3,203. I live in a perfectly normal house — it’s not a flood zone.”
In February, Attorney General Josh Stein appealed the utility commission’s approval of Duke’s most recent three-year rate hike to cover electric grid upgrades. It began with a roughly 8% increase in January followed by two 3% increases in 2025 and 2026, which Stein argued would excessively burden customers and appealed for Supreme Court review.
“Poverty is not a crime,” Robeson County resident Amy Woods said at the hearing. “Raising people’s utilities beyond the income of the people that live there should be a crime.”
Carmody similarly told Port City Daily he believed technological improvements and federal incentives make solar a more affordable investment than natural gas. He argued trends of the clean energy transition will steadily continue to decrease renewable costs, while fossil fuels are subject to volatile price fluctuations. He noted natural gas and other fossil fuel commodity prices caused Duke’s 11.7% rate hike last year.
He cited a 2023 study by financial advisory and asset management firm Lazard found solar, wind, and geothermal technologies to be cost-competitive with conventional energy sources under certain circumstances, such as broad utility scale production.
Carmody also took issue with a shareholder-owned private firm holding a legal monopoly in the state, arguing short-term profits hold too much sway over the competition-free utility provider. Duke opposed HB 503 in 2023, which would have evaluated benefits and costs of electricity market reforms.
Duke Energy Carolinas — with 12 out of its 21 facilities based in North Carolina — reported a net income of $1.4 billion in 2023 and Duke Energy Progress — Wilmington’s provider with 19 of its 21 major facilities in North Carolina — reported a net income of $998 million.
Duke spokesperson Bill Norton told PCD he empathized with resident concerns, but thought comments generally failed to credit Duke for positive steps it is taking to increase clean energy production, as well as the current technological limitations of battery storage. He argued increased natural gas production is necessary to fill in gaps on renewables with limited hours of operation.
“Batteries are going to play a huge part,” he said. “But the batteries that are deployable today are limited to four to six hours. So that doesn’t get you through one night, let alone three weeks of cloud cover.”
Norton also pushed back on criticisms of Duke’s state regulated monopoly, citing a Wall Street Journal analysis finding states with deregulated utilities have higher costs.
Robert Parker — COO at Wilmington-based Cape Fear Solar Systems — said he believed Duke is doing “some very positive things in renewable energy.”
He highlighted the company’s new PowerPair program, providing incentives to residential customers to make solar and battery installation more affordable.
“The issue here is that this is just a pilot program that will fill up quickly,” Parker said, arguing Duke should make the program permanent and extend it to commercial customers.
Wilmington city council member Salette Andrews also argued for more emphasis on solar energy in the plan, citing the use of it in her home.
“I urge the NC Utilities Commission to reject Duke Energy’s reliance on natural gas and instead prioritize a robust expansion of solar and wind energy capacity,” she said. “By doing so we can reaffirm our commitment to leading the clean energy transition, mitigating climate change, and securing a sustainable future for all North Carolinians.”
[Correction: This article has been corrected to note Duke will carry out offshore wind feasibility studies if ordered by the Utilities Commission. An earlier version of this article stated Duke will perform feasibility studies to create an offshore wind farm off the Brunswick County coast. PCD regrets this error.]
Tips or comments? Email journalist Peter Castagno at peter@localdailymedia.com.
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