State regulators order Duke Energy to release documents

Utility regulators have ordered Duke Energy Corp. to publicly release nearly 100 confidential documents related to the construction of its troubled coal-gasification plant in southwestern Indiana.

Duke has argued that said the documents and hundreds of others contain valuable trade secrets. But the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission said many of the emails and reports contain only general communications between Duke and its contractors and are not protected from disclosure, according to The Indianapolis Star.

"The evidence fails to indicate how competitors … could gain any value from this information," the commission wrote Wednesday.

The documents include correspondence between Duke and its contractors over who was responsible for engineering and construction problems that have caused $1.3 billion worth of cost overruns at the company's $3.3 billion Edwardsport power plant.

Contractors have argued that Duke interfered in the building process, while Duke has argued that the contractors provided faulty information. The commission said it reviewed 328 confidential documents and determined that 85 and parts of 10 others should be made public.

Duke and its contractors have 30 days to appeal. Duke says it's reviewing the commission's order, but maintains that it has made the documents available to other parties in the case, including consumer groups.

"Many of those we requested to keep confidential because they contained information our vendors considered confidential, and we have confidentiality agreements with them," Angeline Protogere, a spokeswoman for the company, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The commission has held hearings to investigate whether claims by various consumer watchdogs and consumer groups that Duke committed fraud, concealed vital information or grossly mismanaged the plant were valid.

Last month, Duke and several of its critics reached a settlement that, if accepted by the commission, would dismiss the charges. Under the settlement, Duke would pay $2.6 billion of the plant's cost and financing and pass on the remainder to customers, Protogere said. She said the agreement also would allow Duke to pass on financing charges to its customers.

The settlement would result in a 9 percent rate hike over two years on top of 5 percent already added to customers' bills, Protogere said.

Without the settlement, customers would have faced a 22 percent increase, she told The Associated Press.

Under the original project budget, a rate increase of 11 percent to 13 percent had been expected, but Protogere said that estimate was based on outdated data.

Duke has about 790,000 customers in Indiana.