Dive Summary:

• Duke Energy Progress, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, won a hotly contested rate case Thursday.
• The North Carolina Utilities Commission approved an average 5.5% rate increase for Duke’s North Carolina customers so the utility can update the grid and cover the cost of coal inventory no longer in use.
• Electric rates will increase by $147.4 million, or an average of 4.5 percent, beginning June 1, 2013. Rates will increase by an additional $31.3 million, or 1 percent, beginning June 1, 2014. The total increase in rates over the two-year period will be $178.7 million, or an average increase of 5.5 % for all customers.

From the press release:
“The year two increase accounts for $31.3 million in costs associated with the construction of new natural gas combined-cycle generation at the Sutton Plant in Wilmington, N.C.”