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Duke Energy's proposed N.C. electric rate increase became a referendum on coal-fueled power Wednesday as opponents of both lined up at a Charlotte public hearing.
Duke wants to raise rates 12.6 percent in what would be its first general rate hike since 1991. The agency of the N.C. Utilities Commission that represents consumers says the request isn't justified.
But most of the two dozen speakers at a commission hearing on the rate hike also wanted to talk about expansion of Duke's Cliffside coal-fired power plant, which the rate increase would help finance.
Environmental groups have filed legal challenges, still alive in state administrative courts, over the plant's expected air emissions. Critics have also attacked the $2.4 billion project, which is 40 percent complete, for its part in a coal-power industry that is a major source of the greenhouse gases linked to climate change.
“I don't understand how this is even up for discussion,” said Charlottean John Merrick, who said he's angry over coal plants. “I think in a few years, coal's going to be out and renewable energy is going to be in.”
Duke says the Cliffside expansion is needed to replace older, dirtier plants with cleaner, more efficient ones. The rate hike, it says, is necessary to pay rising general day-to-day costs and to recover $4.8 billion in capital spending, including Cliffside, incurred since 2006.
“We recognize this is a challenging time to ask customers to pay more,” Tim Gause, Duke's regional director of government relations, told the commission. “Duke Energy is certainly not immune either. In fact, we are in a pretty tough spot.”
Duke says its rates are now 31 percent below the national average. It's asking N.C. residential customers, however, to pay 18 percent more – 13.5 percent in the rate proposal now under consideration, and 4.8 percent more in a fuel adjustment approved in July.
The N.C. commission's Public Staff, which represents utility customers, doesn't believe the overall rate increase is justified, staff attorney William Grantmyre said. The N.C. attorney's general office, which is also charged with advocating for consumers, hasn't yet taken a public position.
Charlottean Betty Robinson, 87, has: “I'm mad as hell,” she told the commission.
The rate increases would increase her costs by $100 a year, she said, despite her efforts to use energy efficiently. “Just let me tell you something loud and clear: We don't want that power plant to be built at all,” she said.
Critics say dropping demand, and growing attention to energy efficiency, make new coal-fired and nuclear power plants unnecessary. Duke's Carolinas electricity sales dropped nearly 2 percent from 2007 to 2008, and company forecasts predict slowing growth in retail sales over the next 20 years.
They accuse Duke of trying to widen its customer base, offering wholesale contracts to cooperatives in South Carolina, to justify building new plants. Duke has said it makes sense to widen its customer base during the building phase the utility is now entering.
“Duke is asking us to pay more for electricity we don't want and don't need,” speaker Alan Burns said Wednesday.
After a series of public hearings, the commission is scheduled to begin hearing expert testimony on the rate hike request in Raleigh on Oct. 19.
