Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) has secured approval for its Green Source Advantage Choice (GSA-C) program in North Carolina, enabling large business customers to support renewable energy development by powering their operations with 100% renewable, carbon-free energy.
“Green Source Advantage Choice builds on the success of our original Green Source Advantage program, allowing large businesses to integrate decarbonization into their long-term plans,” said Kendal Bowman, Duke Energy’s North Carolina state president. “After engaging stakeholders in 2022, we prioritized creating an option that meets customer needs within the regulatory framework.”
The original Green Source Advantage (GSA) program allowed large nonresidential customers to offset their electricity use by purchasing renewable energy from new projects connected to the Duke Energy grid. GSA-C expands on this model with several key enhancements, including increasing available capacity to 5,000 megawatts (MW), more than five times the original program’s capacity. GSA-C enables large businesses to work toward 24/7 clean energy usage, helping them meet their sustainability objectives.
Key features of the new program include an additional bill credit option and the ability for participants to increase the renewable energy capacity they use, allowing them to match 100% of their energy consumption. GSA-C is entirely voluntary and is fully funded by participating businesses, with no cost to those who opt out.
GSA-C maintains the flexibility of the original program, allowing customers to negotiate terms directly with renewable energy suppliers. Customers can also secure clean energy environmental attributes (CEEAs), including both renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon emission reduction attributes. There’s an option to integrate battery storage at the renewable facility, and contract lengths can be mutually agreed upon by customers and developers.
The program offers three options for participants:
- Bring Your Own PPA: This option, available annually with 250 MW of capacity, allows customers to secure renewable energy via their own purchased power agreements.
- Resource Acceleration Option (RAO): Modeled on the Bring Your Own PPA, the RAO provides an additional 300 MW of capacity every two years.
- Work with Duke Energy: A new option allowing customers to collaborate directly with Duke Energy on future renewable projects, which can be developed by Duke or a third party.
“The revenue from the sale of clean energy environmental attributes benefits all retail customers, allowing everyone to share in the advantages of clean energy,” added Bowman.
Later this year, Duke Energy also plans to file for approval of Clean Energy Connection, a subscription-based community solar program aimed at providing another pathway for customers to achieve their sustainability goals.
