Agreement hides largest costs to North Carolinians and rebates upfront expenses to the tech billionaires
Last week, Duke Energy gained deceptive headlines and gushing praise after claiming its recent deal with tech oligarchs would protect other customers from the costs of providing power to controversial new A.I. data centers. In truth, the agreement cleverly excludes billions in coming expenses for new power plants to fuel these massive developments.
The arrangement deals only with upgrades to grid equipment such as power lines and poles – not expensive new generating facilities. Duke says that data center developers would “pay” upfront for the grid upgrades, but the deal only involves letters of credit – or guarantees to Duke that developers would pay if they break their contracts. Otherwise, costs would be borne by other customers.
Duke Energy also misled the public by framing the issue as a done deal – a wonderful one for data centers! – just because the Charlotte-based corporation reached agreement with the tech billionaires. In reality, the Commission still has a say, and the courts might also become involved.
On top of it all, the negotiations locked out many interested parties by being announced and held within another ongoing Utilities Commission proceeding. Even a Utilities Commissioner, Donald van der Vaart, said that the process was exclusive and not an “adequate vehicle” for resolving the critically important issue.
This is one of Duke Energy’s biggest scandals ever. It seeks to paper over two of the public’s biggest concerns: that Duke Energy and A.I. data centers are driving up power bills and massively expanding fossil fuels – even as 2026 continues breaking records for cascading climate disasters in the US and across the world.
Duke Energy has claimed that its massive planned expansion of fracked-gas-fired power plants is to serve all customers, but NC WARN has proven that the demand for new plants is coming from the very data centers that Duke Energy spends millions to recruit.
NC WARN filed a demand on October 1 for all records from the Governor’s Office and Commerce Department pertaining to their assistance to Duke Energy in recruiting the data centers.
Last week, NC WARN launched a statewide petition drive calling on Gov. Josh Stein to use his authority and political power to implement a 2-year moratorium on data centers.
The Governor helped fuel the data center frenzy and massive backlash. Now, it’s on him to freeze current data center development and protect North Carolinians from further backroom scheming.
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Now in its 38th year, NC WARN is building people power in the climate and energy justice movement to persuade or require Charlotte-based Duke Energy – one of the world’s largest climate polluters – to make a quick transition to renewable, affordable power generation and energy efficiency in order to avert climate tipping points and ongoing rate hikes.