Duke Energy Carolinas commercial electricity rates in North Carolina

• Average commercial price, 20259.25¢per kWh, all commercial customers
• vs North Carolina average−9.5%state commercial average 10.22¢
• Commercial customers309,423largest of 49 in North Carolina
• Average use6,653 kWha month per commercial customer
• Average bill$615a month per commercial customer
• Since 2015+18%from 7.84¢ per kWh
• Outages172 mina year per customer · US average 124

Duke Energy Carolinas is an investor-owned utility serving 44 counties in North Carolina. Among the 49 North Carolina utilities in EIA’s 2025 sales data with 500 or more commercial customers, it is the largest, with about 41% of the state’s commercial customers. EIA lists it as Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC.

Duke Energy Carolinas commercial electricity prices, 2015 to 2025

In 2015 Duke Energy Carolinas billed its commercial customers an average of 7.84¢ per kWh. In 2025 the figure was 9.25¢, so it rose 18% over 10 years. The average for all commercial customers in North Carolina rose 17% over the same period. The highest year was 2024, at 9.87¢. Between 2024 and 2025 it fell 6.3%.

Average use and average bill are the utility’s commercial sales and revenue divided by its commercial customers and by twelve. The bill is an all-in figure: energy, delivery, demand and fixed charges together. A few very large customers pull both averages up, so most businesses use and pay less than the average.

Residential, commercial and industrial prices at Duke Energy Carolinas

In 2025 the average commercial price at Duke Energy Carolinas was 31% below the residential figure and 20% above the industrial one. Larger customers take power at a higher voltage and use it more steadily, so at most utilities the average falls from residential to commercial to industrial. Which class an account falls in is the utility’s decision, and the line between commercial and industrial is drawn differently from one utility to the next.

How Duke Energy Carolinas’ commercial rates are set

Duke Energy Carolinas is investor-owned, so its rates are set in cases before the North Carolina Utilities Commission and published in a tariff, which is a public document. A commercial account is billed on a rate schedule, chosen by the size of the account and the voltage it takes power at, and a schedule usually combines a fixed monthly charge, a charge per kWh and, above a certain size, a demand charge on the highest rate of draw in the month. The schedule code is printed on the bill. There is no competitive supply market for ordinary commercial accounts in North Carolina, so the levers are the schedule, the peak and the amount used.

Meters, time-varying rates and net metering at Duke Energy Carolinas

EIA counts 310,150 commercial meters at Duke Energy Carolinas in 2025, and 308,441 of them (99%) are advanced meters (AMI), which record use at least hourly and report it to the utility at least daily. Of the rest, 1,456 are automated-reading (AMR) meters, which send a reading to the utility for billing only, and 253 are standard meters. An advanced meter is what makes interval data possible, and interval data is what shows when a building’s peak demand happens.

At Duke Energy Carolinas, 17,243 commercial customers were on a time-varying rate in 2025, about 5.6% of its commercial customers. A time-varying rate charges more in some hours than in others, so when a business uses power matters as well as how much. The kinds Duke Energy Carolinas reports offering commercial customers are time-of-use pricing, real-time pricing and critical peak pricing.

EIA records 1,081 commercial net-metered generating systems at Duke Energy Carolinas in 2025, with 55.5 MW of capacity between them: about 3.5 for every 1,000 commercial customers. Net metering credits a customer for power its own system sends to the grid; the terms are in the utility’s tariff.

How reliable is Duke Energy Carolinas’ electric service?

Duke Energy Carolinas customers went without power for an average of 172 minutes in 2025, excluding major storms, with about 1.22 interruptions per customer. The average across U.S. utilities reporting the same way is 124 minutes. With major storms counted the figure was 216 minutes. These are averages over every customer of every class, so they describe the system and not any one street.

Where Duke Energy Carolinas serves

EIA records Duke Energy Carolinas serving customers in 44 North Carolina counties: Alamance, Alexander, Anson, Buncombe, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Caswell, Catawba, Chatham, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Davidson, Davie, Durham, Forsyth, Gaston, and 26 more. A county can be shared between utilities, so this does not tell you who serves a given address. The utility that serves an address is the one named on its bill.

EIA lists Duke Energy Carolinas as its balancing authority, the body that keeps supply and demand matched minute by minute across the area.

Other utilities in North Carolina

The average each billed its commercial customers in 2025. The North Carolina page has the state’s own figures and every utility with 500 or more commercial customers.

• Duke Energy Progress (11.01¢)
• EnergyUnited (9.84¢)
• Dominion Energy North Carolina (10.63¢)
• Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation (11.52¢)

What these figures can and cannot tell you

• They are averages over every commercial customer. A utility whose commercial customers are mostly large averages fewer cents per kWh than one serving mostly small shops, so a lower figure can mean larger customers and not a lower rate.
• They are not a rate schedule. None of these figures is a charge printed in Duke Energy Carolinas’ tariff, and nothing here works out a bill from one. The tariff index lists the utilities whose filed schedules are quoted on this site.
• They are annual and final. EIA publishes utility figures once a year. The North Carolina page carries the state’s trailing 12 months, which is more recent and still preliminary.

For one building, the cost estimator gives a range by building type, size and state, and price by utility sets every utility side by side. Commercial vs residential vs industrial compares the classes in every state.

Data: every year of these figures, for this utility and every other with a page, is in one CSV, free to use with credit to the U.S. Energy Information Administration and this site. To cite this page: Duke Energy Carolinas commercial electricity rates, CommercialElectricityRates.com, from EIA Form EIA-861 final 2025 data.

Common questions about Duke Energy Carolinas

What is the average commercial electricity rate at Duke Energy Carolinas?

Duke Energy Carolinas billed its commercial customers in North Carolina an average of 9.25¢ per kWh in 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That is 9.5% below the North Carolina commercial average of 10.22¢. It is the utility’s commercial revenue divided by its commercial sales, so it describes the whole class and is not the rate on any one schedule.

How much is the average commercial electric bill at Duke Energy Carolinas?

About $615 a month in 2025, on average use of about 6,653 kWh a month. That is Duke Energy Carolinas’ commercial revenue divided by its 309,423 commercial customers. A few very large accounts pull the average up, so most businesses pay less than this.

Have Duke Energy Carolinas’ commercial electricity rates gone up?

The average Duke Energy Carolinas billed commercial customers rose 18% between 2015 and 2025, from 7.84¢ to 9.25¢ per kWh. The North Carolina commercial average rose 17% over the same period.

How reliable is Duke Energy Carolinas’ electric service?

Duke Energy Carolinas customers averaged 172 minutes without power in 2025, excluding major storms, against a 124-minute average for U.S. utilities reporting the same way (EIA).

Does Duke Energy Carolinas use smart meters for businesses?

EIA counts 308,441 advanced (AMI) meters among Duke Energy Carolinas’ 310,150 commercial meters in 2025, which is 99%. An advanced meter records use at least hourly, which is what makes interval data and time-varying rates possible.

Is this the rate my business will pay Duke Energy Carolinas?

No. It is an average over every commercial customer, from a corner shop to a campus. What one business pays depends on its rate schedule, how much it uses and how hard it draws at its peak. The schedule code is printed on the bill, and the schedule itself is in Duke Energy Carolinas’ tariff.