Duke Energy wants 17 percent increase on homes

RALEIGH Duke Energy Corp. on Friday asked North Carolina regulators to allow it to raise residential energy rates by 17 percent, the move that would add about $19 to the normal monthly home energy check of $97.05. The Charlotte-based utility filed the request with the state Utilities Commission to raise the base rates to keep up with $4.8 billion in investments in the electricity generating and transmission system. The proposed enlarge would raise Duke Energys North Carolina revenue by $646 million. The association also wants to raise the allowed rate of return on shareholder equity from 10.7 percent to 11.5 percent. The rate request also seeks the 14 percent enlarge for industrial and commercial customers. The normal of rate increases for all types of business is 15 percent, the association said. The Utilities Commission rarely approves rate increases as large as the energy companies request. In 2009, Duke Energy was approved for an normal 7 percent base rate enlarge over two years. The association had sought 12.6 percent and the Utilities Commissions Public Staff, which represents consumers, suggested the 4.7 percent enlarge was appropriate. That rate enlarge saw the normal residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month pay $7.30 more per month by this year. If regulators approve the new rate increase, it is forecast to take outcome in February, pronounced Brett Carter, president of Duke Energys North Carolina operating unit. The rate enlarge would not extend to current business of Raleigh-based Progress Energy, Carter said. The two companies are planning the merger that is approaching to close this year. Were still operating the companies very separately and this is the Duke Energy-only filing, Carter said. Even post-merger the operating companies will be operated completely separate from one another. About 75 percent of the requested enlarge represents the companys effort to recover investments since the last rate enlarge was approved in 2009, Carter said. Another North C! arolina rate enlarge will be filed next year to complete the investment recovery, he said. Duke Energy pronounced the building program includes improvements to three hydroelectric dams on Lake James in McDowell County, the 600-megawatt natural gas and oil-fueled unit at the Rowan County plant, the half-billion-dollar air-pollution scrubber at the Cliffside coal-fired plant, and financing costs for the new unit at Cliffside, and about $1 billion in transmission equipment. The electric complement that serves our business is aging, Carter said. The investments weve made over the past few years ensure that the energy our business count on will be there when they need it. The requested North Carolina rate enlarge does not include other operating factors like fuel costs, Carter said. Duke Energy will ask South Carolina regulators for the rate enlarge in August after last year winning approval for the 5.2 percent general rate increase, the first in nearly 20 years. The pending South Carolina rate enlarge would take outcome early next year, the association said. Duke Energy has about 1.8 million electricity business in North Carolina and about 600,000 in South Carolina.