Attorney General Jeff Jackson, Governor Stein Respond to Duke Energy’s Proposal for NC’s First Large Load Tariff

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
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RALEIGH - Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Governor Josh Stein responded to Duke Energy's proposal to create North Carolina's first-ever large load tariff and establish rules that apply to data centers and other large energy users. On behalf of the state, Attorney General Jackson argued in legal filings before the North Carolina Utilities Commission that large energy users like data centers should pay their fair share for the resources they use and the strain they put on North Carolina's energy grid.

"My office fought for a large load tariff for months, and now North Carolina families are one step closer to being shielded from the unfair burdens of data centers," said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. "This is a massive step forward in making sure data centers pay their fair share - but we're not done yet. We're going to push for more transparency, more accountability, and more protections for ratepayers."

"For months, I have called for a large load tariff to protect North Carolinians from the costs of data centers' massive energy use," said Governor Josh Stein. "While this action creates a new floor for what is possible, the Utilities Commission has more work to do to ensure families aren't left footing the bill. The Utilities Commission must require data centers to pay the full cost of their impact and bring their own clean energy. My bipartisan Energy Policy Task Force and I will continue to push to bring cleaner, more affordable energy to North Carolinians and protect North Carolina consumers."

Several large corporations and government agencies have signed on to Duke's proposal with the North Carolina Public Staff; they include Amazon, Andale LLC (an affiliate of Meta), the United States Department of Defense, all other federal agencies, Google, and Microsoft.

The proposal includes several of the protections Attorney General Jackson fought for in multiple Duke Energy cases:

• First state large load tariff. For the first time, data centers and other large energy users would be subject to a large load tariff. The tariff applies to customers that:
  • Signed a contract on or after June 1, 2026.
  • Use 50 megawatts or more while running at 80% or more of their full power on average, OR use 150 megawatts or more even at any percentage of their full power.
• No backroom deals. Duke Energy must obtain Commission approval of a publicly available contract template for data centers and large energy users to sign. This means that for the first time, the template contracts that data centers sign in North Carolina will be public.
• Pay for equipment built for them. Large energy users must pay cash up front for grid equipment built only for them - like new substations - within 60 days of signing their first contract.
• Pay a minimum bill. Every month, large energy users have to pay for at least 75% of the power they signed up to use, even if they end up using less during certain months.
• Long contracts. Data centers and large energy users must sign contracts for a minimum period of 10 to 15 years, which helps guarantee that they pay for the equipment and infrastructure built to serve their energy needs for that period without shifting costs to families.
• Exit penalty. Energy users have to give Duke Energy two to four years' notice before they end their contract, and they have to keep paying their bills during that time. If an energy user leaves its contract before the notice period ends, it must pay a penalty. Users also have to provide cash or financial guarantees to make sure they can pay those penalties.
• Cutbacks during power strains. When the energy grid is strained, large energy users that are still in their first years of service must reduce power use when Duke Energy asks them to.

These are good steps forward for ratepayers, but there is still work to be done. Attorney General Jackson is warning that Duke's proposal has major gaps that could harm residential ratepayers:

• Power plant costs. Duke projected that more than 80% of the new energy demand it will need to meet comes from new data centers and other large users of energy and has proposed building new power generation and transmission assets to meet this demand. The current proposal does not require large energy users to pay for the new generation they cause. Attorney General Jackson argued that they should be responsible for those costs.
• No large energy rate class. The proposal doesn't create a separate rate class for data centers and large energy users. Attorney General Jackson has pushed for a separate rate class so we can accurately know how much it costs to serve data centers and ensure they are paying for their fair share to protect families.
• No build or bring your own clean power. Duke previously announced a clean energy tariff in 2024. It has failed to keep its promise to develop and submit it to the Utilities Commission. This proposal still doesn't include one. Attorney General Jackson has pushed for an option for large load customers to build or bring their own clean energy, which would reduce the strain on the energy grid for everyone else.

Governor Stein believes data centers need to pay their own way, provide the clean energy they need, and protect the communities where they operate. Earlier this year, the Governor's Energy Policy Task Force recommended developing options for large load tariffs, "bring your own" capacity, and load flexibility to protect residential ratepayers from the impacts of data centers and allow those data center companies to fulfill their clean energy commitments. In July, Governor Stein expressed his support for Duke Energy joining the federal administration's Ratepayer Protection Pledge but reaffirmed that making the pledge real would require both creating a legally binding large load tariff to charge data centers their full freight and establishing a program that allows data centers to directly select and pay for their own clean energy generation. Click here to read more about Governor Stein's Energy Policy Task Force, including its February report.

Attorney General Jackson is fighting to protect North Carolinians from paying more on their utility bills. He refused to sign on to the proposed settlement in the Duke Energy Carolinas rate case because DEC residential ratepayers' bills would still rise an average of approximately 9.5%. He also refused to sign on to Duke Energy Progress's proposed 15% rate increase, which would force DEP ratepayers to pay nearly $960 million in unnecessary rate hikes over the next two years. He's also challenging Duke Energy to put its money where its mouth is and commit legally - not just verbally - to the promises it made to the federal government's Ratepayer Protection Pledge, a set of commitments to make sure that data centers and other large energy users "build, bring, or buy the new generation resources and electricity needed to satisfy their energy demands, and pay for all new power delivery infrastructure upgrades to service their data centers."

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