Duke Energy Indiana is seeking a rate increase of 16% over a two-year period to help fund a stronger electric grid, enhanced customer services, take care of environmental obligations and more.

The request rate, filed Thursday with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, calls for the 12% increase in 2025 and about a 4% increase the following year, according to a news release from the Plainfield-based company.

The annual revenue increase would be $492 million.

The rate increase will vary among consumers depending on the cost to serve different types of customers, such as residential and business. The total monthly impact of the two steps for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month would be about 19%, or $27.63, according to the news release.

“Since our last base rate increase in 2020, we’ve invested $1.6 billion in our electric grid, power plants and overall system on behalf of our customers, including advanced technology that has helped prevent more than 185,000 power outages,” said Stan Pinegar, who is president of Duke Energy Indiana. “We know that utility costs can be a major part of a household and business’s budget and that customers expect us to do our part to keep bills as low as possible,”

“We have kept our day-to-day operating costs flat since 2020 while we make long-term investments to serve customers,” he said. “We also are proposing voluntary, ‘time-of-use’ rates to help manage customer bills. Fortunately, fuel costs for our electricity production have declined, and residential customer bills are about 25% lower than they were in late 2022.”

As a regulated business, Duke’s rates can only be changed after approval from state utility regulators, so there is no immediate impact from this request, according to the news release.

There will be public proceedings, including opportunities for customer input. A regulatory decision is possible in early 2025.

To help customers manage their electric bills, Duke Energy is proposing time-of-use rates where customers can shift some of their power use to times of day when energy is less expensive. If the program is approved, it would be voluntary for residential, commercial and industrial customers interested in participating.

Some of the components of the request include:

• The addition of state-of-the-art sensors to its power lines. Much like the GPS in a car that can identify an accident ahead and reroute a driver around the incident, the technology can quickly identify power outages and alternate energy pathways to restore service faster for customers when an outage occurs. For a video of how the technology works, visit Self Healing Technology – Duke Energy at duke-energy.com.
• The hardening of its system against severe weather to reduce power outages, including changing wood poles to steel, undergrounding power lines in targeted, outage-prone areas and rebuilding miles of overhead lines.
• Taking steps to improve physical security and protections at some of its key infrastructure delivering power to Indiana communities in the wake of physical attacks to the electric grid nationally
• The addition of 345 miles of new power lines and infrastructure to serve them for the more than 60,000 new residential and business customers in the state by 2025.
• Dealing with federal rules that require changes to the way the company manages coal ash generated from electricity production and stored at power plant sites. Duke Energy is closing its Indiana ash basins responsibly and in compliance with environmental regulations.
• Keeping pace with evolving customer needs and expectations and has installed new systems, such as the ability for customers to initiate service at a new location online and receive service the same day.

For information on this rate request at duke-energy.com/IN-Rates.

Duke Energy Indiana, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, provides about 6,800 megawatts of owned electric capacity to approximately 900,000 customers in a 23,000-square-mile service area.