Less than two months after a prior rate increase lifted typical Pee Dee household bills, Duke Energy wants South Carolina's Supreme Court to let it pursue another increase for those customers.
At stake in the appeal is how soon utilities may tap a newer state law designed to streamline annual rate cases — a question that matters for consumers already facing steep electric bills.
Here's what to know
On July 15, state utility regulators said Duke could enter South Carolina's rate stabilization program but could not use it to boost prices until a year had passed. Duke then took the fight to the courts. As the SC Daily Gazette reported, the company had become the first electric utility in the state to apply for the program when it filed in March.
Duke now wants approval for a 4% increase for Pee Dee customers, down from an initial 6.6% proposal after objections from state watchdogs. That request arrived only 41 days after an earlier approved increase pushed the standard 1,000-kilowatt-hour residential bill in the Pee Dee up by $11.23, to roughly $156 a month.
Electric utilities were added to the rate stabilization system in May 2025 through a broader energy law. Under that approach, companies can seek increases once a year for up to five years, while customers retain the right to challenge the requests and regulators still decide whether the underlying costs are eligible. What the process does not reopen is Duke's authorized 9.99% return.
Defending the lawsuit, Duke said, "The PSC's decision effectively sidelines the Legislature's clear direction to allow more timely cost recovery of prudent utility investments and more predictable customer rate adjustments by refusing to apply the framework as written."
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More background
The dispute centers on whether a company can pass costs on to customers almost immediately under a law promoted as a smoother, more predictable way to handle rising expenses.
When lawmakers were sold on rate stabilization, utility companies said the model would spare customers from sporadic big jumps by producing more modest, regular increases.
Commissioners said the filing was based on older financial information and decided Duke needed newer data before any added charge could reach customer bills. Duke contends that reading strips the new law of its intended effect.
The appeal comes ahead of Duke's planned January 2027 combination of its two South Carolina utilities. Even after the merger, Pee Dee and Upstate customers are expected to remain on separate rate tracks for a while. Comparable Upstate residential customers already pay about $10 less per month than those in the Pee Dee, and Duke's proposal would have increased, not reduced, that difference.
What's being done?
The Public Service Commission has blocked Duke from using the new pricing process, ruling that the company must wait a year from the time it applied before collecting a rate increase through it.
Duke is also facing opposition from the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs. The agency asked the state Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal and argued the issue belongs before the Public Service Commission.
Duke said the holdup will force it to borrow money, which the company estimates would add $6 million in financing costs and interest that would ultimately be charged to customers anyway, the SC Daily Gazette reported. In a separate statement, Duke said the commission "ignored established precedent and undermined the purpose of the law."
According to Duke, the lawsuit is about "more predictable customer rate adjustments."
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