RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina utility regulators ordered Duke Energy Corp. on Friday to perform a series of activities to generate electricity that they are saying will help ensure greenhouse gas reductions set in a recent state law are met.
However the Utilities Commission’s directives on solar, wind, nuclear and other sources for electricity don’t endorse any particular mixture of energy sources to fulfill the mandates currently required for 2030. The order does tell Duke Energy’s subsidiaries in North Carolina to optimally retire its remaining coal-fired plants by 2035, consistent with a previous announcement by the corporate.
The bipartisan 2021 state law said the panel needed by Saturday to approve a plan for the state’s electric public utilities — essentially Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress — to scale back carbon dioxide emissions by 70% by 2030 as in comparison with 2005 levels. Net-zero emissions by 2050 are also ultimately needed, in line with the law.
Duke Energy had offered last spring 4 different portfolio options, three of which actually delayed meeting the 70% reduction until 2032 or 2034. The law provides for wiggle room on the deadline.
Critics of Duke’s plans said they relied an excessive amount of on natural gas or unproven technologies and would make customer bills too costly. Some environmental groups offered their very own carbon-reduction plan that reached the 70% reduction mandate by 2030 while relying more on solar and wind power and battery storage use.
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However the seven-member commission, chosen by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, declined to select any specific portfolios Friday. The 137 pages produced by the panel said it was adopting “all reasonable steps” that the state law ordered to realize the reduction and directed near-term actions “that support lots of the portfolios the parties to this proceeding present.”
“Because the record amply demonstrates, there is no such thing as a single, unique resource portfolio that satisfies the required emissions reduction goals,” Commissioner Dan Clodfelter wrote in a separate opinion to the essential order, with which he fully agreed. “I feel that is essentially the most responsible way, and indeed the one responsible way, to proceed on a journey that starts today and can span the subsequent 28 years until 2050.”
The commission is already required to review the plan every two years, and it may possibly make adjustments. Friday’s order told Duke to file a recent proposal by September — which reflect the brand new directives — and prepare for hearings in May 2024.
Still, the order could possibly be challenged on the state Court of Appeals by the Charlotte-based utility or any of the handfuls of third parties that formally intervened within the case.
The law says the panel could examine “the most recent technological breakthroughs to realize the least cost path” and other considerations in determining a way forward. The commission ultimately can delay the date for reaching the 70% goal if, for instance, the electrical grid’s performance is questioned.
A commission news release announcing the order said that last weekend’s power outages attributable to the acute cold and high demand “particularly underscore the necessity for an orderly transition away from fossil fuels to low and zero-carbon dioxide emitting generating resources while maintaining or improving the reliability of the electrical grid.”
The outages led Duke to scale back demand with automated rolling blackouts that took many by surprise.
Friday’s order directed Duke Energy to conduct by 2024 two more competitive procurements for solar generation that can come online by 2028. The utility also authorizes Duke to obtain battery storage to contain the solar-generated electricity; study the acquisition of wind-lease areas off the North Carolina coast; extend the licenses of its current nuclear power fleet and consider recent nuclear generation; and plan for extra natural gas-fired turbines.
The 2 Duke Energy subsidiaries serve 4.4 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina. The utility also intends to perform an energy-mix strategy in South Carolina.
Third parties that got involved within the case included trade and environmental groups, alternate energy producers and large electricity consumers like Google and Meta. The Attorney General’s Office and the commission’s Public Staff, which represents customers, also scrutinized the portfolio proposals.
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