Edward Smith, edward.smith@sierraclub.org
Indianapolis, IN: On the heels of hearings for a nearly $500 million rate increase and being awarded 0 out of 100 points in the Sierra Club’s latest Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges report, Duke Indiana has filed its preferred energy plan with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, which is more expensive and more polluting than other options according to the utility’s own analysis. Duke’s new energy plan will see it operate the least amount of renewable energy by 2035 compared to its Hoosier peers, even though it should have the most renewable energy as the largest utility in the state.
"Instead of building renewable energy and battery storage to clean up its energy mix, Duke chose to double down on fossil fuels,” said Joab Schultheis, volunteer Chair of the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter. “Duke continues to ignore the growing threat of climate change, which it alleges to care about, and customer support for clean energy."
Utilities like Duke are required to conduct long-range energy plans that model various scenarios regarding various power resources and demand, called an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), as part of the tradeoff for being a regulated monopoly. A large, resource-intensive IRP is submitted every three years. Duke is making the choice in this plan to spend an additional $64 million annually to operate Edwardsport on coal gasification vs operating on gas.
“Duke continues to ignore customer and business demand for renewable energy, with almost no renewable energy today and the least proposed investments in wind and solar among regulated utilities moving forward,’” said Megan Anderson, Senior Beyond Coal Campaign Organizer in Indiana. “It’s beyond disappointing to see Duke choose a plan that wastes customer money on expensive coal operations while massively scaling back investments in renewable energy.”
Comparing Duke’s 2021 IRP to its 2024 IRP, the utility slashed 3,798 megawatts of clean energy investments and delayed a company-wide exit from coal from 2035 to 2038 by extending the life of its Gibson coal plant in southwest Indiana. Duke's 2021 energy plan proposed shutting down unit 5 at the Gibson coal plant by 2025 and units 3 and 4 by 2029. Additionally, Duke’s 2021 energy plan proposed 4,697 megawatts of wind, solar, and storage by 2035. In Duke’s new plan, between now and 2035, the utility will only install 499 megawatts of solar and 400 megawatts of battery storage, for a combined total of 899 megawatts of new clean energy.
Duke will go from a meager 100 megawatts of wind energy to none by the end of the decade when it lets a power purchase agreement expire, and the utility has no plan to bring new wind energy online between now and 2035. Duke will also make zero investments in solar or battery storage from 2031 through 2035 according to its latest preferred energy plan. Highlights of Duke’s preferred energy plan, Blend 2, can be found here.
Environmental and industrial groups that intervened in Duke’s IRP share the same concerns about the high cost of the utility’s preferred plan compared to a more affordable and equally reliable option that it considered. Hoosiers are able to contact the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to make their concerns known and demand better from Duke and its CEO Stan Pinegar.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.