INDIANAPOLIS (May 11, 2015) \u2013 State regulators have rejected a proposal from Duke Energy to raise customers\u2019 rates. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission said Friday in a ruling the company didn\u2019t provide enough details for their $1.9 billion, seven-year plan.<\/p>\n
The proposal would have put Duke\u2019s Indiana customers on smart grid technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain committed to making the critically important investments to our system for the benefit of our customers,\u201d Lew Middleton said, a spokesperson for Duke Energy.<\/p>\n
Middleton said the company will most likely re-file a revised proposal. The original plan would have installed digital smart meters<\/strong> in homes, which would have tracked energy consumption and transmitted that data wirelessly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Privacy experts nationwide have voiced major concerns about where that data goes. But power companies have maintained there\u2019s no risk for customer information, adding the new technology would allow crews to fix outages faster and allow customers to reduce their bills.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of these components are getting older, aging and there\u2019s new technology that works better to help keep the power flowing,\u201d Middleton said.<\/p>\n Duke\u2019s plan faced a slew of opposition.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a big win for consumers,\u201d Kerwin Olson said, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition. \u201cDuke failed to meet their burden of proof. The law clearly spells out criteria that the utility has to get in order to meet this kind of approval. And this is a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n The company said rates would have increased 1% a year for seven years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still reviewing it and trying to decide what it means for us and what our plans will be going forward and what our options are,\u201d Middleton said. \u201cThe grid is aging. It\u2019s not getting any younger.\u201d<\/p>\n Middleton added it\u2019s difficult to say whether Duke Energy could fully complete its proposal without raising rates.<\/p>\n \u201cRates are always going up,\u201d Olson said. \u201cFuel is going up and other things are going up, so this doesn\u2019t mean Duke bills are necessarily coming down. But it is a win, in a sense, Duke rate payers aren\u2019t going to have to pay for these unnecessary projects.\u201d<\/p>\n