Duke Energy Carolinas cut its North Carolina rate-case request to $496 million over two years from the $1.002 billion it originally sought, after a series of settlements narrowed the filing from a 15.0% revenue increase to 3.7% on average annually.
The company’s initial November 20 filing asked for about $1.002 billion in higher retail revenues over the two-year period, based on a 10.95% return on equity and a 7.92% overall rate of return. In June, Duke reduced that ask to about $622 million, or a 9.3% increase, and lowered the ROE request to 10.48%.
The July 17 comprehensive settlement pushed the request down again to $496 million. Under that agreement, the parties settled on a 9.8% ROE, down from the 10.48% figure in the revised request and below the original 10.95% ask. The settlement also kept the equity component at 53%.
The rate base in the case was trimmed from about $26.5 billion in the original filing to about $25.7 billion in the settlement. The company’s proposed multiyear plan also shrank, with projected capital falling from about $4.4 billion to about $3.8 billion in North Carolina retail allocation.
The revenue path changed sharply across the case. The original request included $595 million tied to the historic base case and another $407 million from the multiyear plan. After post-filing and partial-stipulation adjustments, that combined figure fell to $556 million. The comprehensive settlement then reduced it further to $496 million.
The settlement also altered the annual rate impact. Duke’s table shows the net annualized customer rate increase at 2.9% in the historic base case and 1.4% in year one of the multiyear plan, for 4.3% combined in year one. By year two, those figures rise to 3.1% and 7.4% combined.
Several specific items were settled along the way. The partial stipulation addressed payroll and benefits, bad debt expense, coal ash amortization, transmission cost allocation, and adjustments tied to distribution, solar, microgrid and other plant items. It also limited the distribution substation and line program reduction to the equipment retrofit program while preserving the company’s O&M estimate.
The storm-cost stipulation resolved treatment of Hurricane Helene and Winter Storm Fern costs and withdrew Duke’s request for storm reserve funding.
Under the comprehensive settlement, Duke agreed to a $10 million shareholder contribution for bill assistance and home-repair support. The company also said it will evaluate delaying its next base-rate case filing until no earlier than Nov. 1, 2028.
Duke said the stipulations are expected to produce about $40 million in one-time pre-tax accounting charges in 2026. As a result of these announcements, the company's shares have moved -0.87% on the market, and are now trading at a price of $125.01. For more information, read the company's full 8-K submission here.
