Duke Energy’s poorest customers use more power per square foot than wealthier ones. A year-old program is connecting them with bill and weatherization help.
Clean energy advocates in North Carolina remain bullish about a Duke Energy initiative to help its poorest customers pay their bills and access weatherization programs, even though participation in its first year fell short of predictions.
A side deal Duke struck in 2023 to lessen the blow of its rate hikes, the Customer Assistance Program offers a monthly bill credit of up to $42 for households under a certain income threshold. For example, a family of four making less than roughly $50,000 a year would be eligible.
Totaling to about $500 a year, the benefit is “very significant,” said Carol Hardison, the CEO of Crisis Assistance Ministry in Charlotte. “That could prevent someone from having to come here,” she said of her group, which helps families in danger of disconnection or eviction. The credit could seem small to a middle-class person, she said, but “that’s half of somebody’s rent.”…