By Liz McLaughlin for WRAL
North Carolina leaders are raising new concerns about rising power bills as the state’s Energy Policy Task Force met Tuesday to examine how rapid load growth from data centers and new industries could strain the grid and push monthly costs higher for families.
Gov. Josh Stein, who created the task force in August, also opposed Duke Energy’s proposed rate hike in a statement Tuesday. Duke is seeking a 15% increase over the next two years, which could add $20 to $30 a month to household bills by 2028. Stein praised Attorney General Jeff Jackson for intervening in the case, calling the increase “simply too high” when “families are struggling to make ends meet.”
Jackson said his office stepped in to make sure customers aren’t paying more than necessary.
“It’s important we take a close look at Duke Energy’s proposed rate increase to ensure it is necessary,” Jackson said in a statement. “My office is intervening to make sure we find the right balance between investing in our energy infrastructure and protecting North Carolinians’ wallets.”
Tuesday’s task force meeting, chaired by Environmental Secretary Reid Wilson and Rep. Kyle Hall, focused on how other states are responding to the data center boom now sweeping across North Carolina. Experts from neighboring states warned that fast-growing electricity demand is already reshaping grids nationwide and forcing regulators to rethink who should pay for costly new power plants and transmission lines.
Luke Wilson, executive director of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, told members his state expects peak demand to climb as much as 60% by the 2030s, driven largely by data centers. “You have to make sure growth pays for growth,” Wilson said. He described Indiana’s new rules that require large users to cover most of the cost of new generation built specifically to serve them.
Virginia State Corporation Commission member Kelsey Baggett said her state has seen hundreds of data center projects line up for grid access, especially in Northern Virginia. The surge prompted regulators there to create a separate electric rate class to ensure big tech users pay their share. “We have to make sure costs are allocated fairly,” Baggett said.
North Carolina faces similar pressures. Duke has warned that electricity demand from data centers, manufacturing and electrification could grow much faster than previously forecast. Under the state’s current structure, changed this summer by Senate Bill 266, residential customers could shoulder a greater share of the cost of fuel and purchased power, while large commercial customers pay less. Some task force members raised concerns that rapid growth could leave households covering more of the long-term costs of new infrastructure unless the state updates its rules.
The task force is expected to deliver recommendations in February on how North Carolina can meet rising demand while keeping electricity reliable, clean and affordable.
Its next full meeting is scheduled for Jan. 22, 2026.