Duke’s New Energy Plan for Data Centers Requires Consumer Protections Now

Duke Energy has released a new long-range power plan for South Carolina that calls for two new gas plants and longer life for coal plants the utility already runs. Duke says the buildout is needed to serve data centers, pointing to 8,000 megawatts of demand from 43 large customers already in "advanced development" and another 6,000 megawatts of possible future demand, though none of those additional customers have signed contracts yet.

Critics, including the Sierra Club, argue Duke is planning expensive, pollution-heavy infrastructure for speculative data center growth while everyday demand from homes and small businesses is actually slowing. Duke's own numbers show residential energy demand growth has dropped from 1.9 percent to 1.3 percent, and retail demand growth has fallen from 1.8 percent to 1.2 percent. The concern is that if these new gas and coal costs get built into Duke's rates, regular customers could end up helping pay for power plants built mainly to serve large tech companies.

The South Carolina Public Service Commission, which regulates Duke, has an open docket specifically on rules for these "large load" customers like data centers. Advocacy groups are pushing the commission to require data center operators to pay their own fair share of costs, rather than spreading them across residential and small business bills. There's no rate change or bill impact yet — this is a proposed plan awaiting regulatory review — but it's worth watching if you're a Duke Energy customer in South Carolina, since the outcome could affect future electricity rates.