‘It is a partnership’: Duke Energy pledges to work for Orangeburg

“Our economic team is already engaged with you guys,” Duke Energy Corp. Vice President Harold James Jr. said Monday.

“We want to make Orangeburg a place where companies want to come and do business with Orangeburg. We want to provide them with Duke Energy electricity. That partnership is real. We view it as a partnership. It is not a customer-supplier thing. It is a partnership,” he said.

“There are really attractive sites in the Orangeburg area that we are going to actively try to place on the market and attract businesses to your community to bring jobs, investment and growth,” James continued.

DPU and North Carolina-based Duke officially celebrated their new power purchase partnership on Monday morning.

“This contract represents a significant effort for the DPU team,” DPU Manager Warren Harley said. “We had some of the largest groups in the Southeast that we considered as a power provider.

“Duke met all the requirements, so they rose above the rest.”

It is the first time in nearly a century that Orangeburg’s DPU will be buying its power from a new provider.

DPU and Duke Energy officials joined Orangeburg City Council and other city leaders for a celebratory luncheon held at the DPU Operations Center on Sprinkle Avenue. DPU is owned by the City of Orangeburg.

DPU entered into a 15-year power purchase contract with Duke Energy for $819 million over the life of the contract. DPU officials have said Duke offered prices below the average offered by other providers that wanted to serve the city.

The contract began Jan. 1 and will run through Dec. 31, 2039.

DPU’s contract with Dominion Energy expired Dec. 31, 2023.

Contract discussions took about three years, Harley said.

“It is a big contract, almost a billion dollars worth, over the 15-year life of this contract,” he said. “It was a serious deal for them and a serious deal for us, but I loved the way we were able to come together and to make this all possible.”

Harley said DPU considered Duke’s reliability, safety, pricing and partnership in economic development, as well as the company’s commitment to invest in education.

“I believe they will be good partners and good corporate citizens in our community going forward,” Harley said.

Echoing Harley, James said “partnership is the right word.”

“We are going to have a really good 15 years and I think at the end of that period, we will both look back and say ‘Let’s do another 15 years,’” James said.

“It is an excellent partnership,” Orangeburg County Development Commission Executive Director Merle Johnson said. “We are very excited for all the citizens of Orangeburg County because when you don’t know who your electric provider is going to be, that causes a problem with economic development.”

“The fact that they were able to close this deal with Duke in certainty for 15 years, plus there is an opportunity for additional years after that, it brings certainty to the markets,” Johnson continued.

DPU officials say the contract will also provide a stable pricing structure for customers and that forecast rate increases are consistent with the changing dynamics of the electric industry. DPU’s rates could change in the future if infrastructure improvements are needed.

“For the customer, it should be a seamless process,” Harley said. “It shouldn’t impact our pricing at this point very much at all. We did a good job at vetting the financial impact. We believe at this point it is going to be a seamless move.”

Orangeburg Mayor Michael Butler described the partnership as “historical.”

“It is truly an honor to join forces with such an outstanding organization,” Butler said. “We are eagerly anticipating celebrating the Duke Energy Team to fulfill our power needs for years ahead. We firmly believe our partnership with Duke will ignite a wave of positive progress as we strive for remarkable growth in Orangeburg.”

“I am so excited that DPU has taken this next step to make sure that power is available for business, for industry, for residential for the next 15 years,” said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.

“I have absolutely no doubt that when this 15-year contract is up, they will renew. Duke is a good neighbor,” she said.

Cobb-Hunter said she is particularly excited about Duke’s commitment to education.

“Between K-12 and our higher education institutions, I look forward to all of us coming to Duke with some creative opportunities to invest in our children and our higher ed system,” Cobb-Hunter said.

In the past, DPU contracted with Broad River Power. That company later became South Carolina Electric and Gas.

SCANA, the parent company of SCE&G, was purchased by Virginia-based Dominion Energy five years ago.

DPU provides power to about 75,000 people in both the city and Orangeburg County and has an annual peak load of approximately 182 megawatts.

Duke Energy serves over 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively owns 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity, according to a company press release.

According to the company, it is targeting net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050.