(The Center Square) – Nuclear production tax credits federally, and fiscal recovery for generation investments in North Carolina, are helping Duke Energy customers, according the company’s president and chief executive officer.
Harry Sideris, in an earnings call with company executives, said surpassing expectations was helped by the July 4 bill signing by President Donald Trump for the former and by a veto of Gov. Josh Stein on the latter.
“During the quarter we advanced for state and federal policies that enables us to meet the moment for our customers,” Sideris said.
House Resolution 1 in Congress, known also as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, had no Democrats in favor at final passage of the Senate or House of Representatives. Senate Bill 266 in the General Assembly, known also as The Power Bill Reduction Act, lost two Democratic senators and made it through the House with Democratic Reps. Carla Cunningham, Nasif Majeed and Shelly Willingham joining all 71 Republicans.
Partisan voting analyzed against Sideris’ comments means the party’s choice was to approve higher consumer costs. There is criticism of the bill, with analyses from N.C. State University and Duke University saying SB266 could mean higher bills for customers because of gas price volatility.
“On the federal side, the preservation of nuclear production tax credits in the final budget reconciliation bill was a significant win for our customers,” Sideris said. “Only well-run, cost-efficient reactors are eligible to receive the credit. Our 11-gigawatt nuclear fleet is the largest regulated fleet in the nation and earned $500 million of PTCs last year for the benefit of our customers. We appreciate the engagement from Congress, the administration, and stakeholders around our shared objective of supporting nuclear energy and lowering customer bills.
“In North Carolina, the Power Bill Reduction Act became law last week. As we ramp up generation investments to meet accelerating load growth, this legislation allows for annual recovery of financing costs for new base load generation, supporting our credit profile and minimizing costs to customers.”
Duke, a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, reported second quarter earnings per share 3.31% higher than forecast; and revenue of $7.51 billion, eclipsing the forecast $7.45 billion.
“We continue to deliver on our strategic priorities, including advancing large scale economic development projects and securing industry leading regulatory and legislative outcomes,” Sideris said. “Starting with economic development, we operate in some of the most attractive jurisdictions in the country.
“In fact, North Carolina was just named the top state for business by CNBC for the third time in four years, and most of our states ranked in the top 10.”
Duke serves 8.6 million electricity customers in the Carolinas, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky; and 1.7 million natural gas customers in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.
