Governor Advocates For Lower Electricity Costs

RALEIGH – On Friday, Governor Josh Stein reaffirmed his commitment to keeping electricity costs down. He joined a bipartisan group of governors, along with the Department of Energy and National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC), in signing a Statement of Principles regarding the PJM electricity market, which covers parts of northeastern North Carolina.

“I am committed to keeping electricity cost as low as possible for families,” said Governor Josh Stein. “That means making sure data centers pay their fair share for the electricity they require to be generated. I applaud the US Department of Energy for this initiative and remain committed to making life as affordable as possible for North Carolinians.”

The Statement of Principles includes measures to protect households and small businesses from capacity price increases, fairly allocate costs of new capacity to data centers that have not brought their own power or embraced flexibility, improve load forecasting, and return PJM to market fundamentals.

Last January, the Governor launched Energy Saver NC, an initiative to promote energy efficiency that provides rebates to households that install energy-efficient appliances, improve home insulation, or upgrade electrical systems.

In August, Governor Stein issued an executive order establishing the North Carolina Energy Policy Task Force to recommend policies to strengthen the state’s clean energy economy by managing increasing electricity demand while maintaining affordability, reliability, and carbon emissions reductions. The task force will submit its first annual report by February 15 this year to the Governor, the General Assembly, the North Carolina Utilities Commission, the North Carolina Rural Electrification Authority, and the public.