Duke Energy seeks Indiana rate increase

Duke Energy on Thursday filed a rate increase request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.

The power company said its request equates to an overall average bill increase of about 16%. For residential customers, the rate increase, if approved as requested, would be about 19%, according to the company.

Duke’s request will face opposition, including from the Sierra Club.

If approved, the annual revenue increase would be $492 million. It would be added to customers’ bills in two steps — about 12% in 2025 and about 4% in 2026.

Duke says the increase will vary among consumers depending on the cost to serve different types of customers, such as residential and business.

The company says total monthly impact of the two steps for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month would be about 19%, or $27.63.

Duke Energy’s rates can be changed only after approval from state utility regulators. There will be public proceedings, including opportunities for customer input. A decision is possible in early 2025.

Duke said it also is proposing time-of-use rates where customers can shift some of their power use to times of day when energy is less expensive. If the program is approved, it would be voluntary for residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Duke says the increase is merited to support investment in the power grid.

“Since our last base rate increase in 2020, we’ve invested $1.6 billion in our electric grid, power plants and overall system on behalf of our customers, including advanced technology that has helped prevent more than 185,000 power outages,” Duke Energy Indiana President Stan Pinegar said in the company’s news release.

Duke Energy says some parts of its request before the commission include:

• Adding state-of-the-art sensors to its Indiana power lines. These can quickly identify power outages and alternate energy pathways to restore service faster for customers when an outage occurs.
• Hardening its system against severe weather to reduce power outages, including changing wood poles to steel, undergrounding power lines in targeted, outage-prone areas, and rebuilding miles of overhead lines.
• Taking steps to improve physical security and protections at some of the company’s key infrastructure delivering power to Indiana communities.

The company also says it is growing and expects to have more than 60,000 new residential and business customers by 2025. It is adding 345 miles of new power lines and infrastructure to serve those customers.

Further, Duke says federal rules require changes to the way it manages coal ash generated from electricity production and stored at plant sites. Duke Energy says it is closing its Indiana ash basins responsibly and in step with regulations.

Finally, the company says it needs to keep pace with evolving customer needs and expectations, such as the ability for customers to initiate service at a new location online and receive service the same day.

Opposition forming

In its own news release on Thursday, the Sierra Club said it opposes the Duke rate increase request.

It argues that, if approved, Duke would use “customers’ money to keep its massively polluting Gibson and Edwardsport coal-burning power plants open.”

“… Across the state, Duke is the largest utility polluter, and furthest behind in building clean energy,” the Sierra Club said in its own news release.

“Sierra Club will further scrutinize the filing, which contains thousands of pages, and will be encouraging community members to speak out against the rate hike by submitting public comments to regulators over the coming months,” the organization’s statement said.