OREANDA-NEWS. Duke Energy Carolinas made its annual filings this week with the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (PSCSC) to adjust fuel and demand-side management/energy efficiency (DSM/EE) charges for customers in South Carolina.

One filing seeks to increase the portion of customer bills that pays for fuels used to generate electricity. Another filing requests an increase in the monthly customer charge used to pay for expanded energy efficiency and demand-side management programs.

The net effect of the two filings, if approved by the PSCSC, would be an increase of USD 7.62 per month on a typical 1,000-kilowatt-hour (kWh) residential bill – increasing the price to USD 108.07 from the current USD 100.45. These rates do not include the proposed increase to base rates currently under review by the commission.

By law, the company makes no profit from the fuel component of rates.

Duke Energy Carolinas makes a fuel cost-recovery filing annually in South Carolina. The fuel rate is based on the projected cost of fuel used to provide electric service to the company's customers, plus a true-up of the prior year’s projection compared to actual costs incurred. The PSCSC reviews fuel costs and adjusts the fuel component of customer rates accordingly.

More than 90 percent of the proposed fuel rate increase, which was filed on Aug. 2, is driven by a credit to customers’ rates from a prior year over collection that ends this year.  Otherwise, fuel costs have only marginally increased when compared to current rates.

Fuel consumption and costs are subject to a variety of factors including weather, customer demand and commodity prices. The annual fuel filing provides a means of ensuring that customers are charged fairly for fuel costs incurred to provide electric service.

Duke Energy Carolinas works to actively manage its fuel contracts and leverage the benefits of the recent merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy to keep fuel costs as low as possible for customers.

If approved, new fuel rates will go into effect Oct. 1, 2013.

New energy efficiency offerings

The utility also filed a request on Aug. 1 to increase the monthly customer charge used to pay for expanded energy efficiency and demand-side management programs. The proposed increase to energy efficiency rates includes amounts related to costs of implementing Duke Energy Carolinas' save-a-watt pilot program, which ends in December 2013. The rates also include charges for the company’s proposed energy efficiency programs and cost-recovery mechanism that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2014, to replace the save-a-watt program.

Duke Energy Carolinas' energy efficiency and demand-side management programs have generated more than 1,550 gigawatt-hours of energy reductions and approximately 840 megawatts of capacity reductions between June 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2012.