A newly passed North Carolina bill will help Duke Energy push forward with plans to finance the energy transition – plans that are likely to be 25% larger in the second half of the 2020s than in the current and coming years.
Charlotte-based Duke, which has 7.9 million customers in six states, plans to invest $59 billion in various energy transition projects from this year through 2025. But, as part of its goals to reduce its carbon output by 70% carbon by 2030 and to be net zero by 2050, that number will grow to between $65 billion and $75 billion from 2025 to 2029. And Chair, President and CEO Lynn Good told analysts and investors on a Nov. 4 conference call discussing third-quarter results that the dollar figure is more likely to top $70 billion than be under that mark.
“Our pace of change will accelerate,” Good said. “Moving into back half of decade, we estimate to be in the top half of the $65 to $75 billion range.”
Good and Duke CFO Steve Young said they plan to share more details on the investment plans in February. Good lauded the recent passage of HB 951 – a measure Duke backed but which drew criticism from some groups concerned about future rate increases – and said it solidifies the foundation for the company’s investments. The next major stop on the company’s roadmap will come in the form of carbon reduction plan that the North Carolina Utility Commission needs to approve by December of next year.
Duke posted a third-quarter net profit of nearly $1.3 billion, which was up slightly from the same period of 2020, on total operating revenues of more than $6.9 billion. Young said the company’s residential volumes were down slightly from the year-prior period – but were up nearly 4% from 2019’s Q3 – and that commercial and industrial volumes were up 5.3% and 7.2%, respectively.
Shares of Duke (Ticker: DUK) fell 1.5% to about $101 Nov. 4. They are up slightly over the past six months.
