New Duke Energy generators to trigger rate increase

Duke Energy has fired up half of a new cluster of generators that are costing $1.5 billion and will trigger a rise in rates.

The North Carolinabased utility is Central Florida’s biggest provider of electricity, with 656,464 customers in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties.

Running on natural gas, the new units will produce a combined 1,640 megawatts, or enough for nearly 1.3 million homes, according to Duke calculations.

Customer bills will soon rise as a result of the new generators, which are statesanctioned, relatively large and similar to expansions by other major utilities.

Duke residential customers now pay $124 a month for 1,000 kilowatt-hours, an amount of power that is nearly average usage but also is an industry benchmark.

By early next year, bills are expected to rise $5.99 for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours in a month.

Duke’s Crystal River power complex is 90 miles west of Orlando. Duke serves parts of North and South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, and is Florida’s second-largest utility with 1.8 million customers.

The new power generators will replace other Duke assets at the Crystal River campus: a retired nuclear plant and two coal plants from the 1960s that are to be shuttered by the end of the year.

Of the expansion, three generator units producing a combined 820 megawatts began feeding electricity into Duke’s grid on Friday. Three more units generating that much power are to plug into the grid in December.

The new units include four gas-turbine engines much like those on a jet plane. As a byproduct, they will produce heat that will power two steam turbines.

The gas turbines were manufactured in Japan and Savannah, Ga., by Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, which has a significant presence in Central Florida.

The natural gas for Duke’s new generators will come from the 515-mile, $3.2 billion Sabal Trail pipeline that was built by Florida Power & Light Co. and began operation last year.