Duke Energy to expand Green Source Advantage program

Duke Energy is looking to expand a program that would allow its customers to supplement their power usage with 100 percent renewable power.

Duke Energy’s Green Source Advantage (GSA) program, launched in 2017, allows large customers to offset their power purchases by securing renewable energy from projects connected to the Duke Energy grid. The customer may count the renewable energy generated to satisfy their sustainability goals.

This program will undergo several key changes. Among them, customers can contract for up to 100 percent of their energy use, whereas previously, the program only allowed for about 30 percent of total energy use. In addition, customers may now combine energy storage with their project – allowing them to align the production of renewable energy with their energy load. Further, Duke Energy is proposing a new 10-year avoided cost bill credit option in addition to the existing hourly, two-year, and five-year options. Up to 4,000 megawatts of capacity will be available under the GSA Choice program, which is more than 10 times the capacity currently available.

“Many of our large business customers seek renewable power sources and are making decarbonization a long-term part of their business plans,” Lon Huber, Duke Energy’s senior vice president, Pricing and Customers Solutions, said. “Duke Energy is proud to offer these customers a wide range of options, including the ability to increase their hourly use with carbon-free energy in one of the country’s first time-aligned clean-energy programs.”

The GSA program has been used by customers such as the City of Charlotte, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Duke University.

Duke Energy also proposed a new program, Clean Energy Impact. This program is designed for customers who want to claim a certain percentage of renewable energy through environmental attribute purchases to support corporate sustainability goals or for residential customers who want to support the local renewable energy industry. The program will feature locally sourced renewable energy certificates (RECs) and month-to-month contracts with no long-term commitments.

“We’re continuing to fine-tune our renewable energy options for all customers and are looking at programs such as community solar in the future. That will allow customers to directly subscribe to the output of a solar facility,” Huber said.