CHARLOTTE -- Duke Energy Carolinas is requesting a 16.7 percent increase in residential customer rates.
If the increase is approved, a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month would pay an extra $18.72 per month.
The rate increase would not affect Duke Energy Progress customers. The company already requested a similar increase for those customers in June.
The increase should increase revenue by $647 million. Duke Energy says the money will go towards clean energy investments; including natural gas, two new solar sites and coal ash cleanup.
“We're gonna manage the waste of the energy that we produce, but we're gonna ask our customers to share in those costs because we've all benefitted from coal,” Duke Energy Spokesperson Jeff Brooks said. “And every time we flip on that light switch we're using that power. And that's a waste that's a byproduct of decades of generation from coal."
Commercial customers would also see a 10.9 percent average increase in rates.
This is duke energy carolinas first request to increase rates since 2013.
The company is also requesting to cancel the Lee Nuclear Plant project in South Carolina.
Duke Energy is pointed at the recent bankruptcy of contractor Westinghouse Electric Company as the reason it wants to cancel the project.
"Certainly creates a challenge for developing new nuclear when your key developer is not in a position to proceed,” Brooks said. “So we evaluated it carefully along with other factors in the industry and really made the difficult decision that we needed to cancel the Lee Nuclear Development project right now before we started the construction phase."
Duke Energy said it will keep its license to build new nuclear at the Lee Plant Site.