PERSON COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA — The U.S. Department of Energy selected Duke Energy's Roxboro plant project in Person County, North Carolina, to receive a $28.4 million grant to upgrade two coal-fired power units. The department is invoking the Defense Production Act to fund the project.
Duke Energy will negotiate the grant terms with the department over six months, with an implementation date between 2027 and 2029. Duke Energy will match the federal grant with $44 million in ratepayer funds. A utility spokesperson reported that Duke Energy applied for the grant to improve boiler fans, turbines, and pulverizers at Units 2 and 3 of the Roxboro plant. These units are scheduled to retire on January 1, 2034, and the grant will not change that schedule.
Kendal Bowman, president of Duke Energy's utility operations in North Carolina, said, "This funding supports previously planned critical upgrades that help ensure we can continue delivering reliable power to our North Carolina customers while keeping costs as low as possible. As our state continues to grow, investments like these help us meet increasing demand, support local communities and maintain the dependable service our customers expect."
The Roxboro plant is 60 years old and located 1.5 miles from an elementary school. In 2020, state environmental regulators ordered Duke Energy to excavate 17 million tons of coal ash from the plant's west basin and two extension impoundments. The excavated material is being relocated to a double-lined landfill on-site, with cleanup scheduled for completion by 2036. Previous leaks from unlined coal ash basins contaminated private drinking water wells near the facility, and Duke Energy provided alternate water supplies to nearby residents under a 2019 settlement agreement with environmental groups.
Steph Gans, a representative for Clean Water for North Carolina, said, "The Roxboro coal plant is a source of toxic coal ash that contaminated an entire community's well water. Using the Defense Production Act to allow Duke Energy to produce more coal ash while the EPA seeks to weaken coal ash regulations is not keeping Americans safe." Gans added, "It is choosing to put them in harm's way. During Duke Energy's rate hike hearings this year, customers said again and again how they resented being charged for Duke Energy's coal ash clean up. This action will keep those high costs going into the future."
During Winter Storm Elliott in 2022, frozen switches and sensors tripped a boiler feedwater pump at the Roxboro plant, according to regulatory commission documents. Duke Energy reported $5 billion in profit last year and requested a 15 to 18 percent rate increase from the Utilities Commission.