Duke Energy is proposing a half dozen new energy-efficiency measures and cash incentives to encourage customers to invest in household upgrades. The incentives range from $30 to $400 and can be used in tandem with state and federal incentives, where applicable.

The Charlotte-based electric utility filed the request today with the N.C. Utilities Commission, the regulatory agency that must approve the measures as sound and worthwhile before customers can take advantage of them. Approval is likely since the measures are comparable to those already offered by Raleigh-based Progress Energy. 

Approval would also allow Duke to recover its program costs -- incentives, administrative and other expenses -- from all customers through their monthly bills. The rationale for spreading the costs is that all customers benefit from cleaner air and system-wide energy reductions that reduce the need for building costly new power plants. Energy-efficiency programs are considered the most cost-effective way to manage power demand.

Duke has about 180,000 customers in Chapel Hill, Durham and other parts of the Triangle, amounting to about 10 percent of the company's customer base in North Carolina.

Progress Energy rates will be increasing slightly next month as the Raleigh-based power company deals with rising expenses for fuel and energy-efficiency programs.

Residential rates will go up 3.7 percent Dec. 1, from about $102 to $106 a month for a typical household that uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month.

The N.C. Utilities Commission approved the increase last week. Power companies adjust their rates for fuel costs and other factors once a year.

The biggest cause for the increase is the rising cost of coal and other fuels. Another contributor is energy-efficiency programs, which include financial incentives for customers, administration costs and marketing costs.

The chief executives of Duke Energy and Progress Energy said this afternoon their companies plan to seek rate increases soon to meet a deadline to recover severance payments that will be paid to employees who lose their jobs as a result of the utilities' merger.

Water wars may one day come to North Carolina.

The cost of tap water may be rise significantly in this state as private water utilities aggressively snap up small water systems and are now eyeing acquisitions of larger municipal water services that have offered cheap water for decades.

Today, private water companies serve nearly 200,000 water and sewer customers in this state, causing rates to double and triple in recent years as the private companies buy up aging systems and make costly upgrades to pipes and treatment facilities.

The aggressive rate increases have led to a backlash in New York, Texas and other states, with charges of corporate greed and price gouging. Several states have launched investigations into the business practices of private water companies.

In a recent example, Aqua North Carolina last week won a rate increase in this state that will boost sales by 5.3 percent. The state's largest private water utility, with 88,000 customers, now charges over $100 a month for a typical water/sewer customer, more than twice as much as many municipal systems.

North Carolina offers fertile territory for further expansion through acquisitions, according to the current issue of UNC Chapel Hill's Water Resources Research Institute quarterly journal.

Duke Energy's customers will see a rate increase of about $5 a month next month as the power company passes on the cost of coal and other fuels used to make electricity.

The N.C. Utilities Commission approved the fuel adjustment yesterday and posted its order online this morning. The increase will raise a typical monthly bill to about $97, as reported by our sister paper, The Charlotte Obsever.

The fuel costs will add about $4.50 to the monthly bill of a household that uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of power.

Additionally, Duke is seeking to add 47 cents a month to residential bills to cover the costs of renewables and efficiency programs. The utilities commission is expected to rule on that request soon.

Duke has 1.8 million customers in the state, including 170,000 in Durham, Chapel Hill and other parts of the western Triangle.

Duke customers can expect steeper cost increases in the future. Duke recently asked the commission for a 15 percent rate hike to cover the costs of new power plants, transmission lines and other operating costs.

Progress Energy today asked state regulators to increase rates by nearly 4 percent for residential customers.

The Raleigh-based power company is asking for the rate increase to cover the rising cost of coal and other fuels, energy-effiency programs as well as solar power and other renewable resources.

Earlier this week, Duke Energy notified regulators it planned to file for a rate increase July 1 to pay for power plants, transmisson and distrubution upgrades and other operating costs.

If approved by the N.C. Utilities Commission, the increase would go into effect Dec. 1.

A typical residential bill would increase from $102.19 to $106.06 a month, bringing Progress's residential power costs to 2009 levels, the year Progress cut residential rates by about 4 percent in response to falling energy prices.

The state's consumer advocacy agency has rejected an 18 percent rate request by Aqua North Carolina, the state's largest private water utility.

The recommendation by the Public Staff to slash Aqua's rate request sets up a hearing June 9 before the N.C. Utilities Commission.

The Public Staff filed its recommendation this afternoon in a case that has elicited dozens of protest letters from Aqua customers around the state who pleaded with regulators for support in the midst of an economic downturn that has left many unemployed and struggling with household budgets.

Rate cases are usually settled by utilities and the Public Staff, but the company and the consumer agency disagreed so strongly in this case that a compromise was never in sight.

Aqua wanted to raise rates by $7.9 million a year for its 88,000 water and sewer customers in the state. But the Public Staff said the company is entitled to raise rates by a mere $984 a year, a puny 0.002 percent. (See pages 5-6 here.)

Progress Energy customers in this state can expect a moderate rate increase later this year, based on the electric utility's rate request in neighboring South Carolina.

Raleigh-based Progress today asked South Carolina regulators to raise the typical residential bill by about $5. The company is recovering fuel costs (mostly coal) and the cost of solar projects, other renewables and energy efficiency programs.

Progress will likely make a similar filing in North Carolina next month, after two consecutive years of rate cuts that reflected falling energy costs in the wake of the recession. If approved by the N.C. Utilities Commission, the increase would be effective Dec. 1.

The nuclear crisis in Japan has spooked N.C. lawmakers from voting this year on a legislation that would make it easier for Duke Energy and Progress Energy to raise rates to pay for new nuclear reactors.

That means the earliest the N.C. General Assembly could vote on the legal change sought by electric utilities would be during next year's legislative session, said Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers during a conference call with analysts this morning.

Mike Hager, vice chairman of the House Public Utilities Committee, said the nuclear proposal had enough support to pass until a tsunami disabled Japanese reactors in March.

Hager, a mechanical engineer who worked 16 years for Duke, said state officials should hold off on the nuclear proposal until the root causes of the Japanese crisis are analyzed.

He also said he has misgivings about advancing legislation that could add between $20 and $40 to a monthly household power bill at a time that many North Carolina counties are still racked by double-digit unemployment rates.

The falling cost of coal and other fuels means that Progress Energy customers in North Carolina will see a rate discount of about 4 percent starting in December.

The monthly bill of a typical residential customer will drop from about $106 to about $102, or nearly $50 over 12 months. This estimate applies to a household that uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month.

The change was approved late yesterday by the N.C. Utilities Commission.