Stronger electric grid, enhanced customer services, environmental obligations drivers of Duke Energy

A stronger, more secure electric grid, environmental obligations and enhanced customer services are some of the drivers of Duke Energy’s Indiana rate request
The way utilities produce and deliver power is changing. There’s advanced technology that reduces power outages, environmental obligations driving cleaner operations, a need for better security protecting the electric grid, and enhanced services that customers today expect.
 
Those are some of the reasons for a rate increase request Duke Energy submitted to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission for review. Outlined here is some background on the request.
It’s important to know that as a regulated business, Duke Energy’s rates can only be changed after approval from state utility regulators, so there is no immediate impact from this request. There will be extensive public proceedings, including opportunities for customer input. A regulatory decision is possible in early 2025.
 
Rate Case Drivers
Since our last base rate increase in 2020, we have 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. Some examples of the investments include:

• a modernized electric grid more resistant to power outages
• 345 miles of new power lines and infrastructure to serve a growing state
• environmental responsibilities at our power plants
• improved physical security and protections on key electric grid infrastructure.

Utilities are also an interest-rate sensitive sector. The high interest rate environment we’ve operated in over recent years has driven up capital costs, resulting in higher-than-normal costs to build critical infrastructure to serve customers.
Proposed Increase
The request is for an overall average bill increase of approximately 16%, which, if approved, would be added to bills in two steps, approximately 12% in 2025 and about 4% in 2026.
The increase will vary among consumers depending on the cost to serve different types of customers, such as residential and business. The 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.
We know that utility costs can be a major part of a business’s budget and that you expect us to do our part to keep customer bills as low as possible.

• Since 2020, we’ve kept our day-to-day operating costs flat while we have made long-term investments to serve customers.
• We are maintaining the lowest “customer charge” among our peer utilities. The customer charge is a fixed cost on utility bills. It doesn’t vary with usage and covers basic costs such as metering, billing and connecting to our system.
• We’re proposing time-of-use rates, where customers can shift some of their energy usage to times when power is less expensive.

You can access more information on this request at duke-energy.com/IN-Rates. Also attached is a fact sheet with background. Please contact us directly with any questions you have.