NC task force proposes safeguards to offset the threat of rising energy bills

For decades, North Carolina’s electricity usage has been relatively stable. Now, Duke Energy expects that use to skyrocket over the next fifteen years, driven primarily by big economic development projects, like data centers.Governor Josh Stein commissioned the Energy Policy Task Force last year to study what other states and utilities are doing and to offer recommendations for lawmakers and regulators on ways to manage that energy growth without burdening ratepayers with skyrocketing bills or backsliding on efforts to clean up the energy grid.The task force released its first report, laying out its proposals this week, including recommendations like special fees or rates for high electricity users and encouraging solar and battery storage.READ: EPA administrator visits Huntersville car dealership after major rule change over greenhouse gasesAccording to the report, customer cost burdens have risen suddenly and sharply in the past few years. Between 2020 and 2025, the average monthly residential bill has gone up about 22%. The task force expressed concern that those rates would continue to rise as the state’s energy grid adds more of what are known as “large load customers.”As for who those customers are, the report says about 30% are data centers and 70% are projects like manufacturing, chemicals, life sciences, food and beverage and aerospace industries. Yet while data centers make up 30% of the expected new customers, they account for 80% of the projected energy demand.As the state prepares for these projects to come online, the task force wants to ensure energy remains reliable for all customers and that residential customers aren’t unfairly subsidizing massive infrastructure projects needed to connect large load customers.READ: Duke Energy breaks ground on natural gas plants, set to replace coal facilityAfter six months of meetings, the first recommendations include implementing large load tariffs, or special rates or fees for customers that demand a certain amount of energy, adding incentives for load flexibility or plans that encourage customers to shift power usage to different times of day to avoid burdening the grid when energy usage is at its highest, and encouraging on-site power generation like a solar and battery storage system.Another recommendation called for greater transparency when it comes to energy and water usage, potentially changing policy to require large load customers to file public reports on the amount of water and power they draw.In response to the report, Will Scott, the North Carolina policy director of the Environmental Defense Fund and a member of the task force, sent a statement calling on lawmakers to take action: “States across the country are putting in place rules to ensure that data centers pay their fair share and can bring their own clean energy with them, rather than passing the bill to NC households and increasing pollution. North Carolina should expect - and deserve - better than business as usual and this report gives legislators and regulators a blueprint for action.”WATCH: Roof leak postpones Charlotte Checkers game