Duke Energy is considering building a pair of new natural gas-fired power plants on the Rockingham County side of Belews Lake, according to a filing with the N.C. Utilities Commission.
In the filing, Duke officials wrote that they are considering building two 425 megawatt combustion turbines in Rockingham County - along the border of Virginia - and want to study the impact that doing so could have on the region's transmission system.
"No final decisions have been made at this time – this is a routine filing in order to gather more information regarding potential transmission impacts if that location is selected at a later date," Bill Norton, a Duke Energy spokesman, wrote in an email.
Norton declined to disclose any alternative sites for the plants. In its 2025 Carolinas Resource Plan filing, Duke suggested that it could consider Belews Creek as the location of two of the seven combustion turbines it hopes to build in the coming years.
"These dispatchable natural gas resources are an important part of the updated Execution Plan and will help the Companies reliably meet the needs of customers," Duke wrote in a section of the resource plan discussing why it needs the new turbines.
The turbines are known as "peakers" because they burn gas to generate power when electricity demands reach peak levels.
"CTs (combustion turbines) are essential to providing firm, dispatchable capacity when the system needs it most," Duke wrote in an appendix to the resource plan.
Duke Energy also uses combined cycle natural gas plants, which are used to provide power on a much more regular basis because they are significantly more efficient than plants that only have combustion turbines.
The utility is planning to build five new combined cycle plants by 2033, including two in Person County and one in Anderson County, South Carolina. Earlier this month, Inside Climate News reported that Duke is considering a Davidson County site for a new combined cycle plant.
Why Belews Creek?
Duke Energy currently operates a 2,200-megawatt dual-fired coal and natural gas plant on the Stokes County side of its Belews Creek property. In a section about the existing power plant in its resource plan proposal, Duke identifies power generation near Belews Creek as "critical to voltage support" for the grid.
"To ensure the continuation of voltage support at this location on the transmission system, comparable replacement generation must be interconnected at the point when these units are eventually taken out of service," Duke officials wrote.
That works both ways, also potentially offering Duke a robust transmission system for new power generation nearby.
Under the 2025 proposal, Duke Energy would retire the dual-fired power plants at the beginning of 2040. That's later than the 2036 retirement date Duke had previously identified for the facility, a consequence, the utility wrote, of increased power demand in the Carolinas and rollbacks of federal air pollution rules.
Until 2020, the Belews Creek power plant was exclusively coal-fired. But the addition of natural gas firing to it at that point also means that there is existing gas supply to the area for the potential new combustion turbines, Norton wrote.
Norton also noted that there is an existing power plant workforce at the Belews Creek facility that could relatively easily shift over if Duke does choose to build the new gas plants nearby.
Even if Duke selects the Rockingham County site, the new combustion turbines would need to receive a series of regulatory approvals.
First, the Utilities Commission would need to approve Duke's preferred version of the 2025 iteration of the Carolinas Resource Plan. Public hearings regarding that proposal are set to begin in February.
Then, Duke would need to seek a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from the Commission, which would allow commissioners to deem whether the project is needed to support the state's power supply.
Under the timeline outlined in the still-under-consideration 2025 resource plan, Duke could file those certificates some time this year.
After that, Duke would need to secure environmental permits from state regulators.
The resource plan timeline identifies the beginning of 2032 as the targeted in-service date for the two new combustion turbines.
Nearby nuclear development
Duke is also exploring constructing small modular nuclear reactors on Belews Lake, but on the Stokes County side, near the site of its existing power plant.
In late December, the utility submitted an early site permit application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for that project.
That application is intended to address environmental and site safety concerns in the early stages of a project.
Norton, the Duke Energy spokesman, said the utility does not believe construction of the gas plant should incur any safety concerns for construction of the nuclear facilities.
"The areas we are considering for new nuclear development are on the other side of Belews Lake. If we decide to pursue new nuclear at the Belews Creek site, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will confirm the safety and suitability of the site, including proximity to other infrastructure, as part of its regulatory process," Norton wrote in an email.
