Duke Energy · CEO Power & Nuclear
Last 3,650 days
Sideris said Duke's growth focus is unchanged after the election and it can work with newly elected officials from both parties.
We have a track record of ... working with both sides of the aisle. We don't see any changes in that focus or any changes in our ability to work with those that were recently elected.
Sideris said officials share Duke's goal of protecting customers and making large loads pay their fair share.
They share our goal, too, of protecting our customers and making sure these large loads pay for their fair share.
Sideris said talks to convert the remaining large-load pipeline are going well but taking longer due to complexity.
They're going very well, but it's taking longer because of the complexities.
Sideris said natural gas will play an important near-term role in ensuring grid reliability.
Our resource plan makes clear the important role natural gas will play in the near term to ensure reliability.
Sideris defended the denied 255 MW North Carolina gas unit as a low-cost solution to generation needs.
We still feel very confident that that's a good project. It's a small project, but it is a low-cost solution to help the generation need that we have in the state to serve our customers reliably and affordably.
Sideris says large load tariffs make big customers like data centers cover their service costs and deliver billions in benefits to other customers.
The progression of large load tariffs across our states ensures large customers, users, cover the cost of serving their facilities and deliver billions of dollars in benefits for our customers and communities over the life of their contracts.
Sideris says natural gas is key to near-term reliability, with over 5 GW under construction and another 5 GW in development.
Our resource plans made clear the important role natural gas will play in the near term to ensure reliability. That's why we're advancing regulatory filings specific to natural gas generation with more than 5 gigawatts under construction in the Carolinas and Indiana and another 5 gigawatts in development.
Sideris says nuclear remains important and Duke is focused on upgrading and extending existing units.
We still feel nuclear is very important to our current system as well as our future. So we're focused on the same things we were before, upgrading our current units.
Sideris says Duke won't proceed with new nuclear until customer and investor protections, supply chain clarity and balance sheet safeguards exist.
We're not going to go forward with anything until we have the protections for our customers and investors until we have clarity in the supply chain and the executability of these projects as well as being able to protect our balance sheet.
Sideris says Duke only counts large-load projects once signed as ESAs, and expects to convert the rest of the pipeline by 1H27 despite complexity.
we're not counting anything until it hits the ESA level because we feel like that is a durable contract and lets us count those earnings and that growth more readily.
Sideris says Duke is open to a Genco structure in Indiana if needed but can serve customers under its current model.
We always are evaluating when we will need or if we will need a Genco kind of operation. So we're open to that. We continue to feel like we can continue to provide the service that we need for our customers under our current model.
Sideris acknowledges the Smith CPCN denial but remains confident in the project and in future approvals such as Davie-Davidson.
Our Smith CPCN that we filed was denied by the commission. They had some questions. I think they were really focused on the IRP proceeding and validating the load requirements in there. We still feel very confident that's a good project.