RALEIGH, N.C. -- Get ready to pay about $14 extra on your next Duke Energy power bill.
That’s after the North Carolina Utilities Commission approved to increase Duke Energy’s rate by less than half of the requested amount it filed in 2017.
Duke Energy initially wanted to charge customers an additional $477.5 million an increase of 14.9-percent for customers. That rate increase would have cost customers $19.50 extra per bill. But the Utility Commission only approved 7.09-percent increase which translates to an extra $14.00 per bill.
The Utility Commission said the rate increase will be difficult for low-income customers. However, Duke Energy will make a $2.5 million contribution from shareholder funds to the Helping Home Fund to be used for low-income energy assistance.
Regulators also decided to block Duke Energy from charging customers for the full cost of closing the coal ash waste pits. The commission also discovered Duke Energy paid more than it should have to remove coal ash at the Asheville coal-burning plant. Therefore, it denied the company from going after customers to pay for it.
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