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A contentious 2024 Hurricane Helene relief bill shifted the balance of power in the regulatory body that oversees Duke Energy’s carbon plan — giving Republicans greater influence over the commission. State Treasurer Brad Briner appointed commissioner Donald van der Vaart, a vocal proponent of fossil fuel expansion, to replace one of the commissioners whose term expired this June.
In recent commission proceedings, van der Vaart has fought against the construction of solar farms if they aren’t built in conjunction with new battery storage systems. When state regulators approved a 275-megawatt solar facility in Richmond County, van der Vaart wrote a dissenting opinion that natural gas supply constraints, even after expanding the Mountain Valley Pipeline, required the commission to extend coal operations to preserve “reliability and fuel diversity, countering gas price risks.”
State regulators are currently deliberating over whether to approve Duke Energy’s construction of three new solar farms and two battery storage projects. This week, van der Vaart questioned Justin LaRoche, Duke’s director of renewable development, about the cost-effectiveness of solar energy generation versus natural gas.
“To be cost-effective, the savings for that 20% while the solar facility is generating electricity would have to offset the amortized cost of the solar facility to make them equivalent,” van der Vaart said.
“I think you’re hitting on one of the key benefits solar resources provide for the system, which is a hedge against fuel prices typically on the side of natural gas,” LaRoche responded.
The 20% van der Vaart referred to corresponds to the approximate annual capacity factor for utility-scale solar farms in North Carolina in 2023. That’s the percentage of the system’s maximum output that it generated over the course of a year. Simple-cycle natural gas combustion turbines had a capacity factor of 6.5% in 2023, while combined cycle ran 74.5% of the time.
A 2023 law reduced the Utilities Commission from seven to five positions. In December 2024, a lame-duck Republican supermajority passed Senate Bill 382 that reorganized government operations under the auspices of Hurricane Helene recovery. After the legislature overrode the Governor’s veto, the third “Disaster Recovery Act” of 2024 switched the duty of appointing one commissioner from the governor to the state treasurer, a Republican-held position.
In 2025, the utilities commission has five members serving six-year terms. The General Assembly appoints two, one by the Speaker of the House and one by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. The governor appoints two to be confirmed by the General Assembly. The State Treasurer appoints the final member.
Three committees in the General Assembly oversee the commission: House Committee on Energy and Public Utilities, Senate Committee on Commerce and Insurance, and Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations.
Duke Energy plans to file its next Carbon Plan in October, kicking off the first biennial planning process under the newly restructured commission.
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