Duke Energy challenges third party providers

Duke Energy is filing a complaint against a nonprofit environmental justice group for the potentially illegal third-party sale of electricity to a Greensboro church.

North Carolina WARN used donations to buy solar energy equipment and provide subsidies to the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro for the past four months, which Duke Energy contends broke the law.

“They’re basically acting as an electric utility, but they’re not an electric utility,” said Randy Wheeless, spokesperson for Duke Energy.

Jim Warren, executive director of N.C. WARN, said third party sales could provide cheap, clean energy to nonprofit entities that currently struggle with upfront costs associated with solar power through Duke Energy.

Solar power has worked well for the church and it are thinking of expanding its use of it, said Nelson Johnson, reverend at the Beloved Community Center.

“We think it’s serving as a model to encourage other churches and homes to use rooftop solar,” he said.

Duke Energy has proposed a fine of up to $120,000 for providing the church with solar energy, which has drawn criticism.

“We said in the past the utility commission has fined those who are not in compliance up to a thousand dollars a day,” Wheeless said. “Whether it is a thousand dollars a day or one dollar a day, we thought there should be some sort of penalty here.”

Warren said a favorable ruling from the North Carolina Utilities Commission could help spread access to clean and affordable energy, though Wheeless said increased access might not lead to better prices.

“Duke Energy’s electric rates in North Carolina are about 20 percent below the national average,” Wheeless said. “There are a lot of states where third party sales are legal, but yet overall electric rates are still higher than they are in North Carolina.”

But Warren said the relationship between third party sales and the overall energy costs in some states is an unrelated factor.

“The polls show that people across the state, Republican and Democrat, support both clean energy and energy competition,” he said.

Duke Energy, by working with the billionaire Koch brothers, has fought legislation to allow for increased energy competition, Warren said. He said that kind of corporate control has created bipartisan support for breaking up energy monopolies.

Wheeless said he sees environmental groups like N.C. WARN as seeking attention instead of solutions, with their opposition to coal and nuclear power making their goals unrealistic.

“I don’t think they’re a real serious player as far as energy policy goes in North Carolina,” he said.

Warren said the purpose of N.C. WARN was to bring attention to clean energy issues, but in policy realm, the ruling on third party energy sales could go as far as the Supreme Court.

“What we’ve got going in North Carolina and across the country is a fight over the future of our energy and our climate condition,” he said.

state@dailytarheel.com