A Duke Energy official said the company's annual planning report has sparked speculation that the startup date for the proposed William States Lee III nuclear power plant here has been pushed back.

The planning report, known as the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), is filed each year with the state's regulatory commission, said Rita Sipe, Duke's nuclear media relations spokesperson.

"It's really a tool that management uses to guide decisions on how to provide electricity in the future," she said.

The IRP factors in such things as proposed new plants and projected electrical loads, she said.

While Sipe noted that no startup date "has ever been etched in stone," this year's Integrated Resource Plan suggests the optimal startup date for the William States Lee nuclear plant is between 2018-2021. That's a departure from the company's 2008 planning report which stated the project would be online by 2018.

The new startup date gives the company more flexibility to secure regional partnerships and to seek cost recovery in North Carolina when they occur, Sipe said. The company is expanding its Cliffside coal-fired plant.

Sipe did stress the 2009 report strongly endorses the use of nuclear generation to meet the company's future base load electrical needs.

She noted the company plans to close some of its older coal-powered units.