Duke Energy hoping emerging tech research benefits customers [Video]

Your power bill is more expensive, in part, because Duke Energy is changing the way it delivers electricity.

Duke Energy is transitioning away from fuel sources like coal, but also looking at how they weave in other energy sources.

Duke Energy recently got approval for rate increases across the state.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission gave the ok to raise rates on Duke Energy Carolinas customers by 8.3% starting Jan. 15, 2024. Just a few months earlier, the commission allowed a rate increase of 5.8% on Duke Energy Progress customers starting Oct. 1, 2023.

Customers under both Duke branches will see additional rate increases of more than 3% each of the next two years.

So, how exactly is Duke Energy using customers’ money to change how it delivers electricity?

WRAL 5 On Your Side traveled to Duke’s Emerging Technology Office research facility just outside Charlotte where the utility is testing how new technologies can be incorporated into the power grid.

Take solar power for example: not a new technology, but researchers are trying to make it more …