Duke Energy requests 12.1 percent rate hike

Duke Energy is seeking a rate hike that could raise the average Cherokee County customer's bill by about $14 a month.

Duke Energy filed requests Monday with the Public Service Commission of South Carolina for permission to raise rates by 12.1 percent.

The increase would be reduced to 7.2 percent thank to the company's plan to refund money collected from customers for past energy efficiency and demand side management programs. The money would be returned through monthly bills over approximately five years.

"The customers were actually paying for those programs. When we stopped running those programs, there was money left over from them," said Brett Carter, president of Duke Energy Carolinas. "We want to now return those dollars to the customers."

The company is also proposing reducing fuel charges.

"The fuel portion of your bill is adjusted every year," said Paige Sheehan, spokeswoman for Duke Energy. "The average residential customer in South Carolina pays a resident rate range from between $83 and $91 per month, depending on what rate they are on. That group of customers would go to $97 a month."

Although the company adjusts fuel costs on an annual basis, the last general rate increase in South Carolina was in 1991, Sheehan said.

The costs will not cover the proposed construction of a nuclear power plant in Cherokee County, she said.

"These are the costs that have already been made," she said. "These aren't proposed projects."

Lighting customers would see a 14.2 percent increase, which would amount to a 12.1 percent increase after reductions.

Industrial customers will have a decrease in their rates of an average of 0.6 percent, the company said.

The company's fuel rate adjustment should be settled in September, allowing the company to decrease residential fuel rates by as much as 3.5 percent by October 2009. The rate case is expected to be settled by December and would go into effect in January 2010.

Duke Energy serves 12,000 residential customers in Cherokee County.