Duke Energy rate hike proposal draws backlash at NCUC hearings

LELAND, NC (WWAY)– Duke Energy is asking state regulators to approve an increase in electric rates over the next two years — a proposal already drawing strong reactions from customers across North Carolina.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission has been holding both in-person and virtual public hearings, giving residents a chance to weigh in on how the potential hike could impact their monthly bills.

Those meetings come as many homeowners are receiving higher winter energy bills from Duke Energy.

Several people spoke during a recent hearing, and none voiced support for the company’s request. This comes after WWAY recently interviewed one resident who resident and their concern over their energy bills.

“It’s absolutely flabbergasting to me that the bill went up that much,” said Tom Tolby, who questioned his winter heating costs.

Tolby said his bill was $320.14 in December, compared with $647.69 in January — more than double the previous month.

On top of rising bills, Duke Energy is now proposing a rate increase. During a webinar hosted by Utilities Commission Chairman William Brawley, residents also shared their concerns directly with company representatives, including Ladawn Toon.

Deborah Cook, a retired schoolteacher, said about 10% of her retirement income goes toward her electric bill.

“I only have a couple lights on at night, minimal appliance use, and my thermostat is set to 67 degrees in the winter,” Cook said. “I live alone in a 1,300-square-foot townhome. I and many others should not have to carry the burden of this outrageous rate increase.”

In a statement sent to WWAY, Duke Energy explained why the request for an increase in utility rates.

We’re making important investments and upgrades to improve reliability, strengthen the grid against outages from storms, and support North Carolina’s growth even while we do everything we can to keep costs as low as possible for our customers. We’ve added around 150,000 customers over the last two years, primarily residential and commercial customers, which required more than 50,000 poles and 4,000 miles of wire. We’ve installed smart, self-healing technology to automatically restore power outages and reduce outage time. Last year alone, this innovative technology helped avoid around 1.3 million customer outages across the state, saving nearly 3 million hours of total outage time. Self-healing technology now serves nearly 3 million customers in the state, around 2 million more than in 2022.

In the Triad specifically, self-healing technology helped avoid nearly 200,000 customer outages in 2025, saving more 500,000 hours of total outage time. Nearly 90% of customers across the Triad are now served by smart, self-healing technology to help restore outages faster.

“We are building 10 new substations to meet growing energy needs, adding advanced power generation, and have performed thousands of grid improvements in counties all across the state to deliver reliable, resilient service to the communities we serve. All of that takes investment, and we are committed to delivering the reliable service our customers expect from us while also working to keep costs as low as possible.

We’ve worked hard to make our operations more efficient and maximize benefits to customers. For example, we’ve proposed merging our Carolinas utilities in 2027, saving customers more than $1 billion in future costs. We cut the cost of our long-term resource plan in half, saving billions. And we’re saving customers more than $400 million on recovery from major storms like Helene through storm bonds. We’re also returning savings to customers through tax incentives for reliable operation of our nuclear plants and have proposed adding similar benefits for solar and hydro tax credits starting next year. All of these measures help keep costs lower for customers.”

To know more about where the future hearing will be at, head to the North Carolina Utilities Commission’s website to learn more.