The NC Court of Appeals has dismissed an appeal by Duke Energy and the town of Orangeburg, SC in an important case involving electricity rates and the future of new power plants.
The ruling upheld the NC Utility Commission’s decision not to allow Duke the automatic right to offer Orangeburg (or any other customer outside the Duke service area) “native load priority” with lower, system-average rates.
This is a blow to Duke’s aggressive efforts to solicit thousands of outside customers in order to justify building new power plants. Duke has been offering those customers cheap rates – while customers within Duke’s service area would absorb the risks and annual rate hikes if the company tries to build new nukes.
NC WARN and the Commission’s Public Staff had opposed the Duke deal, and we applaud the Court’s decision.
NC WARN attorney John Runkle did excellent work in this two-year case.
