Duke Power’s two North Carolina utilities, Duke Power Carolinas and Duke Power Progress, reached a settlement with the North Carolina Public Workers — joined by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and different events — that will broaden necessities supposed to maintain the prices of serving knowledge facilities and different large-load clients off present clients, the corporate introduced on October 7, 2026.
The adjustments are mirrored in a settlement between the 2 utilities and North Carolina Public Workers, the company that represents utility clients. Different events to the settlement embrace Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, the Carolina Industrial Group for Honest Utility Charges and the U.S. Division of Protection. Duke Power stated it carried out substantial buyer protections in 2024 in order that large-load clients pay the prices to serve them, and that the settlement memorializes and enhances these protections.
“It’s easy – knowledge facilities pays upfront for all prices to hook up with the grid,” Kendal Bowman, Duke Power’s North Carolina president, stated within the announcement. “We’re shielding different clients from these prices in a method that protects reliability and ensures everybody advantages from the financial progress coming to North Carolina.”
Phrases of the Settlement
The settlement requires a nonrefundable, upfront fee for electrical grid amenities that serve solely the connecting buyer, akin to a substation wanted to hook up with the grid. It additionally requires upfront deposits and safety ensures for grid upgrades that serve all clients, akin to transmission traces. New large-load clients, together with new knowledge facilities, should take service below a Excessive Load Issue charge schedule, a separate charge established for big hundreds.
Expanded Scope for Giant-Load Clients
Duke Power had beforehand required knowledge facilities and different giant a great deal of 100 megawatts or extra to comply with contract phrases that defend different clients from such prices. If permitted by state regulators, the brand new settlement would apply to all large-load clients of fifty megawatts or extra with an 80% load issue that signal an electrical service settlement in North Carolina after June 1, 2026. Electrical service agreements signed earlier than June 1 include a full suite of comparable buyer protections, based on the corporate.
Buyer Safety Plus Framework
The settlement follows the Buyer Safety Plus framework Duke Power introduced in July 2026, which the corporate stated outlines how knowledge heart progress will end in billions of {dollars} of future buyer advantages. Duke Power stated the brand new settlement provides to that framework in a method that particularly addresses points raised by North Carolina regulators and clients.
In keeping with the July launch, the framework guides how the corporate evaluates, plans for and manages knowledge heart progress and is constructed on three priorities: Protect Reliability, Energy Accountable Progress and Produce Shared Worth. Below Protect Reliability, Duke Power conducts engineering research earlier than new knowledge heart clients connect with the electrical system to make sure the grid can safely serve them whereas sustaining dependable service and energy high quality for present clients.
Below Energy Accountable Progress, giant clients akin to knowledge facilities signal long-term agreements that may embrace customer-funded connection prices, long-term commitments, upfront monetary safety, termination prices and short-term curtailment provisions for restricted, focused grid occasions. Below Produce Shared Worth, when revenues from new large-load clients exceed the price of serving them, the initiatives create buyer advantages whereas supporting investments that strengthen the grid and broaden vitality sources.
“Knowledge facilities will present billions of {dollars} in buyer advantages,” Harry Sideris, Duke Power’s president and CEO, stated within the July announcement. “Duke Power stays laser-focused on making certain knowledge facilities not solely pay their justifiable share but in addition yield financial savings for our present clients.”
Sasha Weintraub, Duke Power’s govt vice chairman and chief buyer officer, stated in the identical launch that a lot of the dialogue round knowledge facilities focuses on how a lot vitality they use, and that the corporate is equally targeted on what that progress can imply for all clients. She stated Duke Power is dedicated to an ongoing, collaborative and clear partnership with clients, regulators and different stakeholders.
Service Territory and Regulatory Evaluate
Duke Power Carolinas serves about 2.3 million households and companies in central and western North Carolina, together with Charlotte, Durham and the Triad, whereas Duke Power Progress serves about 1.6 million clients in central and japanese North Carolina and within the Asheville area. The 2 utilities will likely be mixed right into a single utility as of January 1, 2027.
Duke Power, a Fortune 150 firm headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, stated its electrical utilities serve 8.7 million clients in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky and collectively personal 55,700 megawatts of vitality capability, whereas its pure fuel utilities serve 1.6 million clients in North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio and Kentucky.
The settlement is topic to approval by the North Carolina Utilities Fee, and the corporate stated a call is predicted by mid-November 2026.
