North Carolina puts Duke Energy's Save-A-Watt on hold - Triangle Business Journal:

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The North Carolina Utilities Commission issued its order a day aftere the South Carolina Public Service Commissionrejectede Save-A-Watt and told Duke to come back with a new conservatiobn plan. The North Carolina commissionb ordered Duke to file additional informatiom byMarch 31. Opponents and supportersa of Save-A-Watt will file theif comments byMay 1, and Duke is to respon d on May 18. The commissiom did not say whether it will call foradditiona hearings. It said only that “thwe commission will then take such further action as itdeems appropriate. That actiobn will have an impact on parts ofthe Triangle, includingt Durham and Chapel Hill, wherse Duke supplies electricity.
Duke submitted its Save-A-Watt proposal to Nortnh Carolina inMay 2007. The initiative involvees a seriesof energy-conservatiob initiatives and demand-side management programs that shift power use from time of peak The commission approved Duke’s residential- and business-efficiencuy programs. But it has rejected or withhel d a decision on the parts that Duke has identifiedx as keyto Save-A-Watt. From the start, those basicv parts of the initiative have been Duke wants a new payment syste m that does away with the the approach regulators have traditionallyh followed inthe Carolinas.
Under current regulations, Duke would be paid a rate of returb on the cost of the specificefficiency programs. Duke CEO Jim Rogerds says that doesn’t give power companies a sufficient incentivew to save energy rather thansell it. Through Save-A-Watt, he proposed that Duke be paid a returmn on 90 percent of what are calledcthe “avoided costs” of power production. That is a term of art in utilityh regulation, but essentially it means Duke could make a returm on what it would have cost to buil power plants to generate the energyu the newinitiative saves.
Rogers says that would put energy savinge on the same level with energy sales as a way to make But he saysprofits aren’t guaranteed undet Save-A-Watt. Opponents such as Durham-based contend such a system wouldc allow Duke to make unreasonably high profitson Save-A-Watt. Therse is absolutely no correlation, they say, between the cost of what coulf be relatively inexpensive efficiency programs and the high cost of buildin newgenerating plants. That is the part of Duke’sx Save-A-Watt proposal the N.C. commission wants to learn more about. Duke also asked for almos t total autonomy in creatinbg and eliminating programs forthe Save-A-Watt initiative.
The commissiohn rejected that controversial part of the plan and places limitson Duke’s ability to altert the programs. Duke Energy Carolinas is a divisionof Charlotte-baser (NYSE:DUK).