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Wilmington advisory committee to brief City Council on Duke Energy’s 2025 resource plan; considers advocacy options
Summary
Committee members discussed Duke Energy’s Oct. 1 2025 resource-plan filing — which projects higher long-term electricity demand, delayed coal retirements, additional natural-gas capacity and reduced/shifted solar and wind buildouts — and asked staff to prepare a one-page update for City Council and to workshop possible advocacy recommendations.
City staff briefed the Clean Energy Advisory Committee on Duke Energy’s Oct. 1, 2025 filing of its 2025 resource plan and its potential implications for Wilmington’s clean-energy objectives.
Staff summarized Duke’s key assumptions: substantially higher electricity demand projected through 2040 driven by data centers, manufacturing and transportation electrification; a target for new nuclear or small modular reactors well outside the near term (roughly 2037); a delay in coal plant retirements previously targeted for 2035 toward about 2040; plans to expand some existing natural-gas plants and add one new gas plant; and a reduction and deferral of some solar and wind additions compared with prior filings.
Staff cautioned that this is Duke Energy’s initial filing and still subject to a several-month review by the North Carolina Utilities Commission; it is not an approved or final plan. Committee members said they saw value in sending concise summaries of the filing’s relevant points to City Council and discussed whether the committee should also develop specific recommendations for Council to advocate at the state level.
Possible next steps discussed included drafting a one-page informational memo for Council, coordinating with the city’s legislative-affairs staff for targeted messaging, preparing public comments to the Utilities Commission or pursuing intervenor status in formal proceedings, and working with the North Carolina cities initiative to align municipal messaging statewide.
Committee members asked staff to return with a draft one-pager and to add workshop time to a future agenda to develop any specific recommendations. Staff noted the Utilities Commission review is time-limited (a 270-day statutory window was cited) and that formal opportunities for comment and intervention will follow the filing.
