Tech giants want clean energy in N.C. Is Duke finally ready to help?

For the better part of this decade, Google and other companies have been pushing for a ​“clean transition tariff” as a solution. The scheme would allow the large customers to pay a premium for new, zero-carbon energy, using Duke as a go-between. 

The idea has virtually no opponents, yet Duke has done little to make it a reality. Now, the company says, that’s about to change.

In a statement to Canary Media, Duke said it would start negotiations on a clean transition tariff early next year. The company said the tariff should build on an existing suite of Duke programs called Green Source Advantage that lets large energy users chip in for already-underway renewable energy projects.

“We continue to be open to a clean transition tariff, over and above our current Green Source Advantage offerings,” Duke spokesperson Bill Norton said. ​“We will seek to engage stakeholders in early 2027 to explore gaps in the current offerings and potential new features and options.”

Norton said that the plans for a stakeholder discussion were ​“definite.” While the statement doesn’t carry the weight of a state policy, it marks the most concrete progress toward a clean transition tariff in North Carolina in years.

In the spring of 2024, Duke announced its intention to pursue such a plan with major tech firms and steel company Nucor but never followed through. Earlier this year, the company said it would evaluate the tariff ​“in good faith,” but made no promises. 

Today the need for a clean transition tariff is more acute than ever. Like many utilities around the country, Duke projects surging energy demand from voracious data centers, and wants to raise electric rates and build a spate of new fossil-fuel plants in part to serve the facilities.

Large load tariffs are gaining traction across the U.S. as a way to protect consumers against this massive buildout. In general, they require data centers and other large energy users to commit to paying for a minimum amount of power, and some include bring-your-own-clean-energy provisions. 

Such provisions don’t just advance climate goals, advocates say. They also help ensure household customers don’t end up footing the bill for expensive fossil fuel infrastructure for data centers that don’t pan out or that leave the state early. 

“So much of the talk around a large load tariff is, rightly, ​‘how do we protect customers from stranded-asset risk?’” said David Neal, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center and a key proponent of a clean transition tariff. 

Allowing companies to pay for their own clean energy goes a long way in protecting consumers against risk, he said. ​“Making it easy for those customers to both fulfill their corporate clean energy and climate goals and help protect ratepayers: It’s just a win-win for everybody.”

That’s in part why clean energy advocates objected to a large load tariff agreement Duke and tech companies unveiled last week: It lacks a clean transition tariff. ​“It’s very frustrating that it keeps getting punted,” Neal said. ​“It should really be front and center.”

That agreement needs approval from the North Carolina Utilities Commission. When Duke presented it to the regulators, the utility said it would support a separate proceeding to advance the clean tariff concept, ​“to the extent stakeholders wish to pursue” one. Duke’s statement to Canary Media committing to negotiations on a clean transition tariff goes one step further.

Some of the most vocal stakeholders pushing for a clean tariff are hyperscalers. Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon all told utility commissioners this summer they backed the concept. Google, which helped enact a clean transition tariff in Nevada and is pursuing ones in Indiana and Minnesota, has frequently promoted the mechanism to North Carolina regulators, including in March testimony.

“Google remains committed to advancing the Clean Transition Tariff in North Carolina,” even though it was left out of the Oct. 6 agreement on a large load tariff, Rachel Wilson, Southeast energy lead for the company, told Canary Media in a written statement.

In September, the Corporate Energy Buyers Association, whose 300 business members run the gamut from hospitality to manufacturing, told regulators that Duke should propose such a tariff for commercial and industrial customers within six months.

“Data centers are an important focus of the current discussion,” the trade association testified, ​“but they are not the only customers creating significant electricity demand or seeking new clean energy resources.”

Clean energy advocates contacted by Canary Media about Duke’s planned talks stressed that regulators need to follow through to make sure the clean tariff comes to fruition.

“This is a long overdue commitment to allowing new customers like data centers to choose their own new, clean, cheap power,” said Will Scott, North Carolina policy director with the Environmental Defense Fund. ​“But we need enforceable direction from the Utilities Commission to make sure this leads to a real, on-the-books outcome that saves North Carolina households money.”

Neal won’t be celebrating unless and until that happens. ​“I find it hard to get excited” about a promise for negotiations over a clean transition tariff, he said. ​“A commitment from Duke to talk about it is insufficient. A commission ordering a date certain by which parameters will be worked out — that’s different.”

The commission’s ruling on Duke’s rates and its large load proposal is due in mid-November. It could issue an order on a clean transition tariff then or later in the year.