In addition, the Southern Environmental Law Center, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League agreed to the appropriate financial incentive for the company’s energy efficiency efforts.
Consistent with the settlement agreement filed with the commission, a general rate increase of $74.1 million (or 5.2%) will be effective on February 1, 2010. However, additional steps outlined in the settlement are expected to help lower the total impact of this increase to customer bills to approximately 3.1% in 2010. Currently, most Duke Energy residential customers in South Carolina pay between $80 and $87 a month on average. With the approval of this settlement, those customers would pay between $90 and $93 a month, the company said.
In its ruling, the PSC also approved the cost-recovery mechanism for the company’s energy efficiency efforts.
