Duke Energy said data center growth under its Customer Protection Plus framework will generate billions of dollars in customer savings. The Charlotte-based utility outlined a framework requiring large-load customers to sign long-term contracts with financial protections. The announcement comes as Duke defends a rate request in the Carolinas and data center demand is forecast to reach 8 gigawatts by 2035.
Duke Energy said data center growth will deliver billions of dollars in customer savings under a new framework requiring long-term contracts from large-load customers.
"Data centers will provide billions of dollars in customer benefits," Harry Sideris, president and chief executive officer of Duke Energy, said.
The Customer Protection Plus framework requires data centers above 50 megawatts to pay for at least 75 percent of their contracted capacity for 10 to 15 years. Duke has contracted close to 5 gigawatts of data-center demand and is building roughly 14 gigawatts of generation by 2031. Data centers account for under 1 percent of Carolinas demand today, a share expected to reach about 10 percent by 2030.
The savings pledge lands as Duke customers in North Carolina face electric bills that have climbed about 22 percent since 2020. A recent settlement cut Duke's proposed rate increase to an average of about 3.7 percent a year over two years, pending regulatory approval. The North Carolina Utilities Commission is expected to rule on the large-load tariff this fall.
The math behind the savings claim rests on standard utility economics: a large customer paying its full cost of service helps spread fixed costs across a wider base. At the CERAWeek conference in March, Sideris said a 15-year contract with a 1-gigawatt data center could save other customers roughly $1 billion.
Duke's Carolinas large-customer demand forecast stands at 8 gigawatts by 2035, a projection that helps justify about 9.7 gigawatts of new natural gas plants over the next decade. Consumer advocates have called the tariff proposal welcome but insufficient, pressing for a higher minimum charge and longer terms. In PJM, the largest US power market, a surge of data-center development pushed wholesale electricity prices up 56 percent in 2024.
The savings pledge promises bills lower than they would be without the growth, not lower than they are today, a Duke spokesman said. Whether those savings materialize depends on the North Carolina commission's ruling and whether the forecast data-center load actually arrives.
The announcement shows Duke expects data center demand to provide a meaningful offset to rising system costs. Investors will watch the North Carolina Utilities Commission's ruling on the large-load tariff, expected this fall, for the first enforceable test of the framework.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
