Duke Energy wants to build a new gas plant. Regulators said not so fast.

North Carolina regulators just turned down Duke Energy's request to build a new gas-fired power plant in Richmond County, a rare rejection for a utility whose big plans usually get approved. The 255-megawatt plant, expected to cost $584 million, was meant to help supply power for data centers, the computer warehouses that run cloud services and AI and use huge amounts of electricity. The state's Utilities Commission said the projected demand from data centers was too uncertain to justify the cost right now, and that Duke hadn't shown the plant was the cheapest way to keep the lights on compared with options like battery storage, efficiency upgrades, or grid improvements.

The ruling ties into a wider push across the country to keep data center costs off household electric bills. Governors in several states, along with a White House pledge signed by Duke and more than 200 other utilities, have promised that residential customers won't be stuck paying for power built to serve data centers. Commissioners cited that pledge directly in rejecting Duke's application, saying the company needs to show how the new plant fits with that promise.

This doesn't shut the door for good. Duke can refile, and commissioners suggested it wait until the state finishes reviewing the company's broader long-term energy plan later this year. For homeowners, the takeaway is less about your own house and more about your utility bill: fights like this one are part of a growing effort to stop data center growth from quietly raising what regular customers pay for electricity.