Friday, December 11, 2009

Rate plan receives criticism from experts

Customers who buy their power from Duke Energy in South Carolina face a 9.2 percent price hike by February under a settlement agreement between the company and the Office of Regulatory Staff, the state agency charged with protecting the public interest in utility matters.

If South Carolina's Office of Regulatory Staff had employed the same average and peak method for cost allocation method as other states like Michigan, Duke's residential customers might not be facing such a steep rate hike at the same time manufacturers are set to get a decrease, according to Carl Peterson, a professor in the Center for Business and Regulation at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Comments from Peterson were featured in a December 11, 2009 article published in the (South Carolina) State.

Download a PDF of the article

20091211-State-Dukerateplan.pdf