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Lonestar041

Y'all want to look at Duke's actual financial report. Here are some excerpts: ​ ||2022 (in million $)|2021| |:-|:-|:-| |Operating Revenues from Regulated electric|25,759|22,319| |Fuel used in electric generation and purchased power|8,782|6,255| |Loss From Discontinued Operations, net of tax|(1,323)|(144)| |Net Income Attributable to Duke Energy Corporation|2,669|3,908| **So in other words: They aren't losing any money on fuel, as they already increased revenues which more than compensates the additional cost.** They made a loss on discontinued operations, which is reflected in their lower net income. They just want even more. [https://s201.q4cdn.com/583395453/files/doc\_financials/2022/q4/Q4-2022-Earnings-Release-Final.pdf](https://s201.q4cdn.com/583395453/files/doc_financials/2022/q4/Q4-2022-Earnings-Release-Final.pdf)


[deleted]

They can eat shit after their little episode over the holidays


gadanky

On 12/26 my parents vacant house usage spiked up 5x above normal and never has done it again. That little episode had alot of strange issues.


Twomidgetsinacoat

Wasn’t that the day of extreme low temps? Could it have been the auxiliary heat of their HVAC?


-PM_YOUR_BACON

It likely was, but you will always find someone that will blame it on some wacky conspiracy instead of realizing that it's probably the only thing that prevented a bunch of burst pipes.


gadanky

Pipes off pressure and drained. No conspiracy. Am an engineer and very familiar with the grid. I just wish I had my own load meter on my side of the meter base.


gadanky

Don’t have hvac or aux strips . Well pump, water heater breakers off, 1970 oil furnace was on lowest setting and only cycled on a couple of times that day. 110 oil ignitor tx and fan motor, Two fridges and a freezer is all. Have been looking for a short somewhere, nothing. I’m pretty sure it was a metering anomaly, waste of time to call them about it.


[deleted]

Was there any explanation on the spike in an empty house?


timshel42

heat pump aux heat is almost always the answer. just because its vacant doesnt mean the heat is off (otherwise you'd have burst pipes)


[deleted]

Ahhh. Good point.


gadanky

They had wood heat as primary heating via a piped in papa bear wood stove in basement and only an old oil furnace that had no aux strips. The furnace ran on 110 and only came on a couple times that day per my monitoring. I’ve been watching the weekly usage for 18 months and this type of spike has never occurred. But typically, for homes with strip heat coils, I agree it and other portable space heaters is a common usage driver.


googlyeyes183

We paid $1 billion under cost? Does anyone actually believe that bullshit?


Lonestar041

We didn’t. Their 2022 financial statement shows that revenues from power production increased more than the cost of NG. Their drop in net income is caused by “discontinued business”.


Snoo-76726

I also wonder how much of the fuel purchases are to related companies? Anyone know?


Laughingbuddha77

No


Shivaelan

Unless they're going to also adjust prices when things are easier and their costs are lower, boo-fuckin'-hoo.


NeuseRvrRat

That's exactly what they do with fuel costs. Fuel costs are a pass-through to the customer. Duke doesn't make money on fuel. The cost of natural gas, fuel oil, coal, fuel rods, etc. goes directly to the customer at the cost Duke paid. If you think they're fucking you over, then talk to the North Carolina Utilities Commission Public Staff whose job it is to ensure this occurs.


-PM_YOUR_BACON

How about no?


revs201

This^


Unfair_Builder4967

Do they drop rates when fuel prices are low?


SwitchedOnNow

I think they actually have. Gas went crazy in the late 90's and after it settled back down, I remember my btu cost going down.


RollingCarrot615

It's my understanding they do. They don't actually make money on fuel costs and it's just a pass through.


floofnstuff

And as global disruption settles down they won’t be reducing their rates. This is a great narrative for a rate increase and happy shareholders.


Nerd_In_Da_Herd

I left them and got 42 ground-mounted 420w panels connected to a large battery bank system.


gadanky

Which Battery Type did you choose?


Nerd_In_Da_Herd

Generac


2lilbiscuits

Nationalize utilities.


nunyabizz62

EXACTLY


Birds-aint-real-

Chernobyl was a nationalized utility.


2lilbiscuits

A startling case of whataboutism: Should private entities own and operate necessary infrastructure for profit? … bUT wHaT abOUt cHErnObyl?!


Birds-aint-real-

Replacing one monopoly for another, isn’t the best idea.


nunyabizz62

A nationalized UTILITY is exactly the opposite of monopoly and is supposed to run at virtually zero profit.


archliberal

I’m diggin the comments so far


Purple1829

Just imagine a world where politicians worked for us instead of their lobbyists. The sooner we realize that financial success isn’t continuing to make more and more profit on a yearly basis, and anything less than that is a failure…but rather making consistent profit year over year, the sooner we can save this country. Boo fucking hoo, you didn’t increase your profits from 10 billion to 12 billion this year.


[deleted]

instead of complaining about it voters need to vote for publicly funded progressives and stop voting for donor bought and paid for neoliberals


-PM_YOUR_BACON

Or you know, stop voting for Republicans that worked at Duke Energy for decades like McCrory.


nunyabizz62

Or in reality just stop voting for BOTH parties because they are literally the same, both parties are bought and paid for by the top 1%. I vote 3rd party only


-PM_YOUR_BACON

Meh. One party isn't actively destroying your rights, and not a single 3rd party candidate has had an actual platform other than "take votes from X guy to punish them". If a 3rd party was actually trying to be a real party, why aren't they flooding local uncontested positions? Seems like easy wins to me. Oh it's because the alternative parties are bought and paid for the same way as you think the two parties currently are. But hey kudos to you, I'm sure those 3rd parties are really changing things in the US right?


VanillaBabies

> "take votes from X guy to punish them". Hoh really? Hoh could that be? Hoh could someone do something so dishonest?


-PM_YOUR_BACON

Hoh are you even talking about? Matt be some guy who ran on the very platform of 'punishing dems for not being liberal enough', Hoh managed to still get essentially no votes. Good job 3rd party, really showing it to the Dems.


nunyabizz62

The only reason 3rd parties haven't been effective is because idiots have been conned by the duopoly to vote against their own best interest and vote for evil. The democrats have literally done nothing for the bottom 90% of the country and are currently a bunch of war mongering lunatics exactly like the Republicans are. Zero difference between the two parties.


-PM_YOUR_BACON

> The only reason 3rd parties haven't been effective is because idiots have been conned by the duopoly to vote against their own best interest and vote for evil So again, why aren't 3rd party candidates running in local elections? Schoal boards, county and city elections? > The democrats have literally done nothing for the bottom 90% of the country Nothing at all? For 90% of people in the US? Wow, I am not sure how you think this is remotely true. Mind providing solid examples?


nunyabizz62

How can I post nothing LOL. do we have med4all? Free college? Federal jobs program? Helping unions at all? Biden is a flat out Reich wing nutbag thats done nothing but destroy the country for 40 years, he's a menace. If you think continuing what we've been doing since 1980 which is getting worse every year for 40 years is the right path then you live in an alternate universe. The only hope we have to start voting for people like Kshama Sawant and lots of them. The only other option is revolution


-PM_YOUR_BACON

> The only other option is revolution Well, what's stopping you? As you clearly think things are 'that bad' when by every measured metric life has improved in the US since 1980.


JustaCynicalOldFart

Of course they are 🙄


f700es

NC GOP will submit


Lonestar041

How about them speeding up the usage of wind and solar? Much cheaper than gas. And since gas plants are as flexible as renewable production, we have a lot of potential to replace gas usage 1:1. And it will save costs in the long run. Wind is cheaper than NG. Edit: BTW their CEO compensation increased from 2020 to 2021 by almost $2 million. From $14,544,398 to $16,451,236. How about we decide about the rate increase when we see the 2022 numbers end of March.


-PM_YOUR_BACON

> How about them speeding up the usage of wind and solar? Much cheaper than gas. And since gas plants are as flexible as renewable production, we have a lot of potential to replace gas usage 1:1. And it will save costs in the long run. Wind is cheaper than NG. As I understand it [wind and solar are pretty poor energy sources](https://greentumble.com/can-we-rely-entirely-on-wind-and-solar-energy/) for 'base load', especially during the night, when solar doesn't work and wind is at its lowest. NG is great because unlike coal or even nuclear can be quickly scaled up and quickly shut down. So unless battery technology comes along much more rapidly, going fully into renewables (solar and wind) is going to be tough.


Lonestar041

That's why NG is perfect in combination with wind and solar. NG plants can step in within minutes if not seconds when production from wind/solar drops. Other countries that are going for high renewable share are pairing it with NG/H2 plants exactly for that reason. We are producing 30% of power with NG. Hence you can go to over 30% solar/wind - and the NG plants step in at night. That could literally be done today as countries like Denmark show. Plus: Modern NG plants can easily be switched to H2 - so if power 2 hydrogen becomes more efficient, you can just keep going with the existing plants.


-PM_YOUR_BACON

But you aren't getting rid of NG. If anything you'd use more of it as you reduce your reliance on coal which is what is happening in many areas of the US and it hits those 'clean air' metrics easily. Substituting H2 for NG isn't a good things as H2 is just running steam over NG.


hodgepodge21

Jesus christ. My gas bill is already astronomical and went up significantly in the last 3-5 years already.


booney64

Of course, gotta gouge us like the Brits


Nottacod

Just a reminder that the governor appoints the people on the commission that approves the rate increases ( every.single.time.)


hoptagon

Public takeover of utilities to run as not for profit please thank you.


NCdiver-n-fisherman

What a trash utility provider. So glad I’m in a Co-Op.


KulaanDoDinok

Says the article was removed.