Duke Energy has entered a pair of settlements in North and South Carolina on its proposal to combine Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress, which still needs approval from both states’ regulators.

Duke said combining its Carolina subsidies would help it meet the states’ growing energy needs at a lower cost. (See Duke Energy Says Combining Carolina Utilities Would Save Billions.)

The deal before the North Carolina Utilities Commission was filed in late February and signed by North Carolina Public Staff, the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, Google, Nucor, Walmart and others.

“We’re pleased that public staff and the attorney general’s office agree our customers will see significant future cost savings and other meaningful benefits from combining our two utilities,” Duke Energy North Carolina President Kendal Bowman said in a statement on March 10. “It reduces customer costs, simplifies operations, promotes regulatory efficiencies and supports economic growth across the Carolinas.”

The deal pending before the Public Service Commission of South Carolina was filed on March 6 and was endorsed by the state’s Office of Regulatory Staff, Nucor, Walmart, Vote Solar, the Sierra Club and others.

“Our engagement has been laser-focused on consumer protections and affordability for South Carolina families and small businesses, and one of the best ways to do that is by investing in alternatives to building new costly and polluting resources,” Sierra Club’s Paul Black said in a statement. “Duke’s regulators at the Public Service Commission must turn their attention to establishing strong consumer protections that require tech companies, not families, to pay for all of the energy and infrastructure costs for new data centers, and the Sierra Club has laid the groundwork to make that happen.”

Duke Energy Carolinas owns 20.8 GW of generation and serves 2.9 million customers across a 24,000-square-mile territory, while Duke Energy Progress owns 13.8 GW to supply 1.8 million customers across a 28,000-square-mile territory.

The filings with both states include commitments from the utility to save hundreds of millions of dollars through lower production costs from more efficient operations and lower capital costs from more efficient planning.

The proposal already has been approved by FERC. Assuming the two states approve the settlements, Duke expects to combine the subsidiaries effective Jan. 1, 2027. (See FERC Approves Duke Proposal to Combine Carolinas Subsidiaries.)