Duke Energy’s $2B deal with Singapore raises eyebrows
The huge investment by a foreign government is unprecedented for Indiana utilities, which typically raise capital through more traditional routes, such as selling debt through investment banks.
The huge investment by a foreign government is unprecedented for Indiana utilities, which typically raise capital through more traditional routes, such as selling debt through investment banks.
The project, which would be on built on leased land and span 1,500 acres, including 896 acres in Vigo County and 604 acres in Sullivan County. It would be located on a reclaimed coal strip mine currently being used for crops.
The utility’s R. Gallagher power plant, which boasts twin smokestacks that have long towered over the Ohio River city of New Albany, was scheduled to be retired in 2022, but will now close much earlier.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission ruled Monday that Duke Energy, the state’s largest electricity provider, could collect an additional $146 million a year from customers. That’s down sharply from Duke Energy’s original request.
It’s an unusual rebuke from the Utility Consumer Counselor Bill Fine, who often recommends that state regulators cut a utility’s proposed rate increase, but rarely says the entire hike should be denied.
The ruling is a setback for consumer activists and customer groups, who say Duke Energy’s application to raise electricity rates by an average of 15% is incomplete and confusing.
Key parties in the case have asked state regulators to order Duke to refile all its work papers and exhibits, with formulas and linked spreadsheets.
The federal, North Carolina and Virginia governments asked a court Thursday to declare the country’s largest electricity company liable for environmental damage from a leak five years ago that left miles of a river shared by the two states coated in hazardous coal ash.
Duke said Thursday it will lease about 10 acres from the Purdue Research Foundation for the project it calls the Tippecanoe County Solar Power Plant.
The utility says it wants to keep most of its coal-fired plants in Indiana running through much of the next decade, while gradually investing in wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.
More than 800,000 customers of Duke Energy Indiana could see their monthly bills jump if the utility receives state permission to increase rates for the first time in about 15 years.
Rogers’ path to building the nation’s largest electric utility began in 1988, when he took over struggling PSI Energy in Indiana.
The amount of savings under the agreement approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission will vary by customer. Duke Energy credits the federal tax overhaul for the rate reduction.
Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana says Duke Energy’s controversial Edwardsport plant has suffered repeated outages and failed to live up to its promises, costing ratepayers more than $1 billion in unneeded fees.
If approved by Indiana utility regulators, the agreement would cut the monthly electrical bill of a typical household by an average of 5.6 percent.
Nearly 375,000 Duke Energy Corp. customers may have had personal and banking information stolen in a data breach.
A virtual-power purchase agreement is a new type of energy contract that allows a large customer to support green-energy projects and hedge electricity prices
Duke Energy Corp.’s massive, $3.5 billion power plant in Edwardsport, billed as a technological marvel, continues to deal with operating and maintenance setbacks.
Dozens of insurance companies say they're not obligated to help pay for Duke Energy Corp.'s multi-billion-dollar coal ash cleanup because the nation's largest electric company new the threat of potentially toxic pollutants.
Sheridan Community Schools, a small district of about 1,000 students, expects to save millions of dollars in power costs over 20 years with the move.