Duke Energy Delivers Sustainable Value As It Responsibly Navigates Clean Energy Transition, CEO Tells Shareholders at Annual Meeting

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06/12/2023 - 08:30 AM

Maintaining reliability and preserving affordability remain key priorities
Company making meaningful progress as it prepares its system for net-zero future

CHARLOTTE, NC / ACCESSWIRE / June 12, 2023 / In 2022, Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) continued to make significant progress on its strategic goals, managed through headwinds with great agility and delivered constructive outcomes across its jurisdictions, chair, president and CEO Lynn Good told investors during the company's annual shareholders meeting.

"Our more than 27,000 teammates seized every opportunity to deliver value to our stakeholders and grow our business," she said. "We made meaningful progress on our clean energy strategy and took decisive action to position our company for the long term."

Good cited several milestones:

"We expanded our net-zero goals to include Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 emissions, becoming one of the first in the industry to tie more than 95% of emissions to a net-zero commitment."
"We set a target to exit coal by 2035 subject to regulatory approval and expect coal to represent less than 5% of generation by 2030."
"We announced plans to add regulated renewables at an ambitious pace. We project we'll have 30,000 megawatts on our system by 2035, which is five times more than we operate today."
"We advocated for policies that help us deliver affordable, reliable and increasingly clean energy, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which we estimate will generate billions of dollars in savings for our customers over the next decade."
"We filed our first proposed Carbon Plan with the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC), incorporating input from more than 500 stakeholders and outlining multiple portfolios designed to achieve some of the nation's most ambitious goals while balancing affordability and reliability. In December, we received a constructive order from the NCUC, recognizing the value of an all-of-the-above approach."
"We continued to modernize the grid and increase reliability and resiliency in all our service territories, including approvals of our $2 billion, six-year grid investment plan in Indiana and a $7 billion, 10-year storm protection plan in Florida."
"And increased the capital plan for our regulated businesses to more than $145 billion over the next decade. It's one of the largest in the industry, with 85% funding investments in the grid and our clean energy transition."
"As we increased our capital plan to fund our clean energy transition, we conducted a strategic review of our Commercial Renewables business and made the decision to sell. This decision will strengthen our balance sheet and allow us to focus on the significant investment opportunities within our regulated operations. It will also position the renewables business for continued growth."

"Whether it was restoring service after a historic hurricane, leading the way on decarbonization or finding ways to mitigate costs for customers, we rose to the occasion last year. We delivered on our commitment to customers and advanced our strategic priorities," Good said.

Delivering consistent and lasting benefits to customers

Duke Energy continues its strong focus on affordability and cost management, while maintaining attractive returns for its shareholders.

"We worked with state regulators to mitigate bill impacts and provided customers with resources to help them. This included working with community assistance agencies to connect customers in need with nearly $300 million over the last two years," said Good.

Already in 2023, Duke Energy has achieved constructive regulatory and legislative outcomes, including the approval of fuel and storm cost recovery in Florida; net metering reform in North Carolina; and new legislation in Indiana that supports modern recovery mechanisms and our generation transition.

"We look forward to building on our success, navigating the transition in a responsible way that continues to preserve affordability and reliability while delivering sustainable value for our investors, customers and communities," said Good.

Other business

Also at today's meeting:

Good fielded shareholder questions on a range of topics. The company will post responses to questions on its website.
Shareholders elected all 14 nominees to the company's board of directors.
Shareholders approved the company's 2023 Long-Term Incentive Plan.
A nonbinding shareholder proposal regarding elimination of supermajority voting provisions in Duke Energy Corporation's Certificate of Incorporation received the support of a majority of votes cast.
A second nonbinding shareholder proposal regarding formation of a committee to evaluate decarbonization risk did not receive the support of a majority of the votes cast.

A replay of the meeting will be posted on Duke Energy's investors page.

Duke Energy

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,600 people.

Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.

Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2023 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' "World's Best Employers" list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

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Duke Energy, Monday, June 12, 2023, Press release picture

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