Community members, advocates to hold press conference ahead of Duke Energy rate hike public hearing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2026
CONTACT
Juhi Modi, North Carolina Program Coordinator, (919) 706-1553 ext. 535, juhi@appvoices.org
ROXBORO, N.C. — On Monday, April 13, Person County residents and advocates from various organizations will host a press conference to share their concerns about Duke Energy’s request to increase its rates for electric service in North Carolina.
WHAT: Press conference and North Carolina Utilities Commission public hearing
WHEN: Monday, April 13. Press conference 6:30 p.m., public hearing at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Person County Courthouse, 105 South Main Street, Roxboro, NC 27573
Duke Energy Progress is requesting permission from the North Carolina Utilities Commission to raise residential rates for electricity by up to 18%. The utility is also requesting a 10.95% return on equity, or guaranteed profit.
Duke Energy is one of the largest public utility corporations in the United States, and made close to $5 billion in earnings for 2025. Yet, Duke Energy said it needs to charge customers more to “maintain its current financial position.” This rate increase would especially impact low-income residents, elderly individuals living on fixed incomes and small businesses across the state. As of December 2025, 1 in 5 Duke customers are unable to pay their bills, according to Duke’s self-reported data.
Instead of investing in reliable and available technologies like wind and solar, Duke Energy plans to extend the lives of dangerous and costly coal plants and invest more in expensive and polluting gas plants. Duke is proposing one of the largest gas buildouts of any utility in the country with over 9 gigawatts of gas, even though gas fuel costs and volatility are responsible for most of the utility bill increases for Duke customers since 2017.
Duke Energy has already publicly stated that nearly 85% of the new methane gas power plants they want to build would be for speculative data centers. In Person County itself, Microsoft wishes to build a data center on a 1,350-acre parcel of land it purchased in late 2024.
