CWIP: What it means for North Carolina Voters and Ratepayers
What is CWIP?
Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) allows monopoly utility companies to charge customers for power plants and other infrastructure before they’re built or operational. These costs are passed along during construction, not after a plant provides electricity.
Why Do Utilities Want CWIP?
Monopoly utilities like CWIP because it:
• Provides earlier returns on investment, meaning they can collect profits before a plant is online.
• Improves credit ratings by guaranteeing revenue during construction. • Shifts financial risk to customers rather than their investors or shareholders.
In short: CWIP protects the utility’s bottom line.
What Risks Are Shifted to You?
CWIP makes ratepayers, not shareholders, carry the financial burden for projects that may:
• Go over budget
• Fall years behind schedule
• Never be completed at all
Customers pay, even if the utility mismanages the project.
CWIP Failures in the Southeast
VC Summer Nuclear Project (South Carolina)
• Customers were charged $2+ billion in CWIP for a project that was never finished.
• The plant was abandoned, but customers are still paying.
Plant Vogtle Units 3 & 4 (Georgia)
• Originally budgeted at $14 billion, now over $35 billion.
• Construction was 7 years behind schedule.
• Ratepayers have been footing the bill through CWIP since 2009.
Who Wins If CWIP Passes in North Carolina?
• Monopoly utilitys are guaranteed profit even if projects fail.
• Not ratepayers, who take on the financial risk for billion-dollar bets.
What You Can Do
North Carolina should protect ratepayers by:
• Rejecting CWIP inclusion in rate base.
• Requiring utilities to finish projects on time and budget before charging customers.
• Ensuring accountability for failed or mismanaged construction.
Let’s keep North Carolina families and businesses safe from risky schemes like CWIP.
Questions or want more information?
Contact: Thomas Shumaker, State Director of Conservatives for Clean Energy North Carolina
[email protected]