Update: Duke Energy filed to withdraw the Clean Energy Impact program November 14, 2025. The withdrawal was approved November 25, 2025.
Duke Energy’s Voluntary Renewable Programs are supposed to provide ways customers can access renewable energy credits in their journey to reduce their carbon footprint as part of North Carolina House Bill 951, signed into law in 2021. Most people believe this means investing in programs that will allow the utility to build more renewables than they would have otherwise. However, the programs that were created will not be adding more renewables to the grid, and program participants will be paying a premium to only state that their energy is coming from renewable sources. This may be misleading to customers.
We at SACE wrote about these programs in a 2023 blog article, titled “Problems with Duke Energy’s Proposed Customer Programs for North Carolina,” and much has happened since. The 2023 blog mentioned the proposed Green Source Advantage Choice (GSAC) and Clean Energy Impact (CEI) programs. At the time, two main issues with the programs were that there was no assurance of additional clean energy beyond what is required by the utility, and the fact that the renewable energy credits cannot be certified.
What has happened since 2023?
Let’s discuss GSAC first. This program is for large customers. We argued that this program does not include regulatory surplus — solar in surplus of what regulations require at minimum — and that this is needed for certification by programs such as the Center for Resource Solutions’ Green-e Program. Customers want and assume additional solar will be built by participating in these programs. Duke held stakeholder engagement meetings that resulted in developing the Resource Acceleration Option (RAO). This is an improvement, but does not work for large customers and still does not meet what is needed for certification programs. With RAO, unsuccessful bids into the Carbon Plan competitive solar procurement will be able to be built “accelerating” their development. This program was approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission in July 2024.
Clean Energy Impact (CEI) is a program similar to GSAC for residential and small business customers. Like GSAC, this program also does not include regulatory surplus, thereby not satisfying customers’ desire to reduce their carbon footprint and offset their energy consumption. The program was approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission in January 2025.
Next Steps
While GSAC includes a small improvement with RAO, CEI still does not address the need for regulatory surplus. Duke Energy is claiming participation means driving clean energy. Both programs are basically pay-to-play programs, so customers can only say their energy is coming from renewables. This may be misleading when people participating in these programs are thinking their investment is allowing more renewables to be added to the grid.
We will continue to address the need for regulatory surplus and ensure Duke Energy is clear that these programs are not adding additional renewables to the grid. We hope you will support us in this journey and sign our petition to Duke Energy leadership to demand Duke give customers real options for subscribing to new clean energy projects.
