South Carolina’s  New “Money Shield” for Utilities Law: What It Means for Your Bills

In May 2025, the South Carolina General Assembly passed Act 41 — officially called the “Energy Security Act.” Lawmakers said it would help smooth out electricity bills and protect customers from big jumps. But peel back the label, and you’ll see what it really does: it hands Duke Energy and Dominion a money shield, protecting its profits while leaving families exposed to higher bills.

How the system is supposed to work

Normally, when a monopoly utility like Duke or Dominion wants to raise rates, it has to go through something like a financial health checkup. Think of it like a student asking for extra allowance: before you hand over more money, you want to see the report card and receipts. Did they really need those new textbooks? Are they spending wisely?

That process is called a General Rate Case. Utilities have to open their books and prove every dollar was justified because they ultimately get to increase your rates to cover the dollars they spend. Consumer advocates and regulators act like watchdogs, sniffing out waste and pushing back when the numbers don’t add up.

One of the biggest parts of that process is setting the utility’s Return on Equity (ROE). That’s just a fancy way of saying “profit margin.” It’s the percentage of extra money Duke gets to charge you beyond its actual costs, which it then hands straight to shareholders. Imagine you pay $100 for groceries, but the store tacks on an extra $10–15 just because they can. That markup is ROE.

This system is far from perfect, but it gives consumer advocates and regulators the chance to double-check the tab before customers are forced to pay it.

What changed under the new law

A part of the Energy Security Act  rewrote these rules. Now, utilities can lock in its profit rate for five years at a time. Once that’s set, the utility doesn’t have to go through the full “report card and receipts” process every time it wants to increase your rates. Instead, it can come back with a simpler request with a shorter timeline for review — sort of like skipping the full audit and just sliding a summary of new charges onto your tab.

Utilities sold this as a way to avoid “rate shock.” In their pitch, smaller annual increases would be easier to swallow than one big 10% jump every few years. But here’s the trick: because Duke or Dominion gets to lock in its profit rate first, it has every incentive to set that profit as high as possible. Then, for the next five years, every new cost it adds to your bill gets multiplied by that inflated profit rate.

It’s like if your credit card company raised your interest rate, locked it in for five years, and then kept adding surprise charges to your account. You’d have no choice but to pay.

Duke is wasting no time

Sure enough, within two weeks of the ESA’s passage, both Duke Energy Progress (DEP) and Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC) rushed back to regulators asking for an old fashioned increase in rates and their rate of profit — even though they had just finished their last rate cases. While Duke has not yet started to use the new “money shield” law, Duke can do so anytime it wants – like, say, right after it locks in a new higher Rate of Equity. 

Here’s what they want:

• Duke Energy Progress (DEP): A 12.1% overall increase, including a 15% jump for households. That’s about $21.66 more per month.

• Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC): A 7.7% overall increase, or about $10.38 more per month.

And both are asking to boost their ROE to 10.85% – far above the national average of 9.6%.

Break that down and here’s what you see:

• For DEP customers, about $7 of that monthly hike goes directly to shareholder profits.

• For DEC customers, about $3 per month is pure profit.

That’s not money paying for power plants, poles, or wires. It’s money pulled directly from your pocket and handed to Wall Street investors. If these higher profits are approved by the Public Service Commission, Duke could lock these in for five years using the “money shield” from Act 41.

Why this matters for families

South Carolina families already pay some of the highest shares of their income on energy bills in the country. For many households, another $20 a month isn’t just an annoyance, it’s a tough choice between groceries, gas, or medicine.

And because Duke is a monopoly, there’s no shopping around for a better deal. You can’t switch providers like you can with internet or cell service. Duke has you captive, and now the legislature has handed it a new shield to keep profits flowing with less oversight.

It’s like being told the landlord can raise rent whenever they want, while also guaranteeing themselves a bigger profit every year – and you’re not allowed to move.

And this is just the start. Because once Duke locks in that higher profit margin, almost every new expense they add for the next five years — storm repairs, grid projects, you name it — comes with that padded tip attached. The costs will keep compounding, year after year.

The bottom line

Act 41 was sold as a way to protect customers from rate shock. But in practice, it stripped away safeguards and gave Duke and Dominion a powerful new lever to keep bills climbing.

Let’s be clear: this law doesn’t protect customers. It protects utility shareholders. Families and small businesses are left holding the bag while monopoly utilities walk away with guaranteed profits for years to come.

South Carolinians deserve a fair system where utilities are accountable, not one where lawmakers hand monopoly companies a money shield. Because when Duke and Dominion’s  profits are protected, it’s everyday people who end up paying the price.