Duke Energy Seeks Rate Increases

Duke Energy has filed a rate request that would boost residential customers' monthly electricity bills by 16.3 percent.

In the rate request filed Monday with S.C. regulators, the utility also seeks to raise rates 14  percent and 14.4 percent for commercial and industrial customers, respectively. The request awaits approval by the Public Service Commission of South Carolina.

Duke said the increases would raise $220 million, money it said it needs to offset investments in new energy production and infrastructure.

“As part of our ongoing fleet-modernization plan, we have recently built and put into service two new, state-of-the art power plants that will provide cleaner electricity and serve our customers reliably for decades to come,” said Clark Gillespy, Duke Energy’s South Carolina state president, in a news release.

If approved, this would be Duke’s third rate increase since 2010. Rates for South Carolina customers increased in February 2012 by an average of about 6 percent. That increase dropped per a settlement with the Public Service Commission from Duke’s original request for a rate increase of 15 percent, according to GSA Business.

Duke Energy Carolinas’ service area covers 24,000 square miles in North Carolina and South Carolina and supplies electric service to 2.4 million residential, commercial and industrial customers.