North Carolina regulators have denied Duke Energy's bid to build a $584 million natural gas turbine near Hamlet, ruling that the utility failed to show the project is needed or to adequately explain how customers would be shielded from its costs, according to WRAL.
Duke had sought to add a turbine capable of generating about 255 megawatts of electricity by 2030 at its Sherwood H. Smith Energy Complex. The existing power plant sits next to the site of Amazon's planned $10 billion data center campus in Richmond County, though the North Carolina Utilities Commission said it did not determine that the turbine would serve Amazon specifically.
In Friday's order, the commission said much of the growth Duke anticipates appears tied to future data centers, but that it has not finished reviewing Duke's demand forecast. Approving the turbine before establishing that need, regulators said, would put customers at risk of paying for an expensive project that may not deliver enough value.
The Public Staff, which represents customers in utility proceedings, had recommended approving the turbine despite calling its cost "staggering." One commissioner dissented from the denial, arguing the project is needed to keep the grid reliable as electricity demand grows.
Duke has said large customers, including data centers, pay the direct costs of connecting to its system, and that power plant costs are shared among customers based on how much electricity and generating capacity they use. The company also said its agreements with large customers include minimum bills, termination penalties and financial guarantees meant to protect other customers if a project doesn't go as planned.
The commission said Duke had not shown how those protections, and its commitments under a federal ratepayer protection pledge, would apply to this turbine. Duke can reapply, but regulators want more evidence on how the project would be paid for, how much of the anticipated demand is tied to data centers, and whether other resources could meet it more affordably.