CEO says Duke Energy needs Atlantic Coast Pipeline

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — CEO Lynn Good said Monday that Duke Energy Corp. remains committed to the stalled Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and that if court challenges kill it, the Charlotte-based power company would have to build a new pipeline to replace it.

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“The Atlantic Coast Pipeline was sized and developed with a time frame to meet the needs of our customers,” Good told reporter Alex Steel at Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance Summit in New York. “So if we can’t get Atlantic Coast Pipeline in place, we will need to build other infrastructure to support that — probably from eastern to western North Carolina — to support that.”

She emphasized that she considers that “Plan B,” and that Duke (NYSE: DUK) is focused working with its partners, Dominion Energy Inc. (NYSE: D) and The Southern Co. (NYSE: SO), to complete the $7.8 billion ACP project.

“We continue to look at it,” she said of a potential intrastate pipeline alternative. “But we are committed to Atlantic Coast Pipeline.”