In North Carolina, large data centers are expected to start using massive amounts of energy over the next several decades — a shift that could lead to $50 billion in energy costs by 2050, according to a new report from Gov. Josh Stein’s office.
And without any major policy changes, customers could see their electricity bills increase by 70% over the next 15 years, the report estimates.
The report, released by Stein’s Energy Policy Task Force, estimates how much Duke Energy would need to spend on new power plants, power lines and other infrastructure in the next 25 years. Energy demand is expected to skyrocket over that period, and about 80% of new demand will come from large energy users like data centers.
“If nothing changes, families will have to foot data centers’ bill. That’s unacceptable. We need to bring real rate relief for North Carolinians,” Stein said at a Tuesday news conference.
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Currently, Duke does not have a clean transition tariff, which would allow data centers to build their own energy sources and incentivize them to use renewable energy. The large load tariff it proposed earlier this month also didn’t include any incentives for data centers to build their own energy.
However, the utility told The N&O on Wednesday that it is “open to a clean transition tariff … if it can be designed in a manner that encourages investment in needed new resources while also offsetting costs for all customers.”
“We will seek to engage stakeholders in early 2027 to explore gaps in the current offerings and potential new features and options,” Duke spokesperson Bill Norton said.
Stein and Jackson have both pushed Duke Energy to include clean energy incentives in its current large load tariff proposal.
Yet in recent years, the utility has taken money from the Trump administration to keep its coal plants open longer and end its offshore wind projects. Duke also said in 2024 that it would look into a clean transition tariff — with support from data center developers — only for it to never materialize.
In response to Tuesday’s report, several environmental groups publicly praised the governor and attorney general for trying to push for more clean energy requirements.
“We now know the only affordable path to any data centers in our state is in tandem with clean energy,” said Dan Crawford, senior director of the N.C. League of Conservation Voters. “We should be weaning ourselves off expensive fossil fuels, not doubling down on these volatile fuel sources.”
Jim Warren, executive director of the advocacy group NC WARN, said his group wants to see more “assertive intervention” from Stein to require data centers to use clean energy. Stein’s press release advocates for North Carolina to “start cutting carbon emissions in the mid-2030s rather than later,” Warren noted.
This is horribly out of step with the 61 climate scientists pressing him to stop Duke Energy’s fossil fuel expansion immediately,” Warren’s statement reads.