Power Demand Surge Is Complicating Carbon Goals, Duke CEO Says

(Bloomberg) -- The enormous increase in electricity demand driven by manufacturing and artificial intelligence complicates utility Duke Energy Corp.’s goals to cut carbon emissions, Chief Executive Officer Lynn Good said Tuesday.

Duke, which serves parts of the US Southeast and Midwest, has set a goal to close all its coal-fired power plants by 2035 and to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

“That plan is being challenged by all of the growth” in power consumption, Good said onstage at the Columbia Global Energy Summit in New York. “These are all dynamics that we are wrestling with.”

Electric utilities and regulators have been caught off guard by the biggest demand jump in a generation. In order to handle the surge, some power companies have delayed the shutdown of plants that burn fossil fuels and others have petitioned regulators for permission to build new gas-fired generation.

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