April 1 public hearing set on Duke’s plan to raise rates
From Staff Reports
Duke Energy Progress wants to raise your rates for power, and if you want to comment on the company’s plan, a public hearing for the Pee Dee area is scheduled for April 1.
The hearing, organized by the S.C. Public Service Commission, will be at 6 p.m. at the Florence County Council chambers, 180 North Irby St., Florence.
This is the only hearing that is planned for the Pee Dee area.
In the company’s filing with the PSC for the rate changes, Duke Energy Progress said that it wants the changes to take effect June 1.
Under the company’s plan as given to the PSC, a typical residential customer using 1,000 kWh would see an increase of approximately $17.91 per month beginning June 1, then an increase of $1.60 per month beginning June 1, 2020, and an additional $1.81 per month beginning June 1, 2021.
Duke Energy Progress had also sought to increase its Residential Basic Facilities Charge from $9.06 to $29 per month effective June 1.
That means that even if you didn’t use any power at all during a given month, you’d be charged three times more than you are now just to stay hooked up for electricity.
But late last week, the company backed off on that request, according to media reports, saying that it now only wants to raise that basic facilities charge to $11.96 a month.
Duke Energy Progress, in its PSC filing, says that recent work to modernize the electric system, generate cleaner power, responsibly manage and close coal ash basins and improve service to customers have made it necessary to request a net increase in retail revenues.
Public hearings on the Duke plan have already been held in the Upstate.
The nonprofit group Upstate Forever, the AARP and others are against the plan because they say it would hit customers who can afford it least the hardest.
Duke Energy Progress said in a statement: “We work to keep costs as low as possible for our customers and to avoid an increase to customer bills whenever possible, and we aggressively manage costs to delay the need to increase rates.
“We are seeking this increase now because we have made significant investments in recent years to build a smarter energy infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing customer base, and to comply with rigid environmental requirements at the state and federal level.
“These investments help provide affordable, reliable and increasingly clean energy to customers, and are the main reason for the proposed increase.
“We look forward to presenting our case to the Public Service Commission of South Carolina.
“They will ultimately determine what’s appropriate for customer rates based on a long-standing and very transparent public process for reviewing rate requests.”