From homeowner's insurance to groceries, there’s no shortage of costs that have been creeping upward in recent years. But when it comes to one monthly bill — electricity — some Western North Carolina residents say the rise has been especially steep.
Those concerns will likely be one of the topics Tuesday night at a public hearing in Asheville. The meeting is the first in a series by the North Carolina Utilities Commission about Duke’s long-term plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
In an interview last month, Asheville resident Janet Oppenheimer told BPR her electric bill had been rising over the years. But after a bill for nearly $500 in January of last year, she decided to take action.
Oppenheimer, 74, did everything Duke Energy recommended to bring down her costs in her 1,500-square-foot house. She changed to LED bulbs. She spent $1,600 on extra insulation in her attic.
So Oppenheimer was shocked when she received her $1,050 electric bill this January.
"I have been really struggling for quite a while with the increased prices of my electric," she said. "And it just — it just went over the top. I said, ‘This is not sustainable.’”
Oppenheimer is not alone.
Asheville artist and music educator Jenna J. said she only discovered how much Duke Energy was charging in December, after her partner, who had been in charge of paying the bill, passed away.
"This month it was $400. … And then they say, ‘Thank you for choosing Duke.’ Well, you know what? I don’t have a choice. There is no choice. There is no other power company," Jaffe said.
Jaffe, who is in her 50s, lives in a 912-square-foot house and said she has been baffled that some friends and family members in larger homes have been receiving lower bills.
In some cases, even residents who use Duke’s budget billing plan — which averages out the cost of their bills over a year — have seen a sharp increase. Trish Rux, a nurse and end-of-life doula, saw her monthly bill increase from $96 to $120.
"The main thing is that that feels like a pretty big jump," Rux, a 68-year-old Asheville resident, told BPR. "And being on the budget plan, I do that so that I don’t have big jumps.”
In March, Bill Norton, a spokesman for Duke Energy, told BPR most customers use more energy during the winter, and this winter had some especially cold spells.
The typical North Carolina customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month pays about $152, while the national monthly average is about $172, Norton said, citing statistics from the Edison Electric Institute.
"Duke Energy’s rates are well below the national average," Norton said. "They’re also, the North Carolina rates are lower than our southeastern peers.”
Norton also says there were two recent rate increases that averaged about $14 for the average consumer: The first increase was to pay off investments that Duke Energy made in the electric grid; the second was an annual fuel adjustment.
“We empathize with our customers," he said. "There is no good time for a rate increase. The good news is we’re coming out of winter. Bills should be lower.”
But with good news often comes bad news. And customers can expect to see one more rate increase this October, followed by another one in October 2025.
The public utilities commission holds the first of several hearings across the state Tuesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. at the Buncombe County Courthouse.
