Groups challenge Duke Energy refusal to power multifamily affordable housing unit using rooftop solar

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.–Nonprofit EMPOWERment Inc., represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, filed a consumer complaint at the North Carolina Utilities Commission over Duke Energy’s refusal to provide electrical service to an EMPOWERment multifamily affordable housing complex that will be outfitted with rooftop solar to reduce energy consumption and lower electricity costs. These cost savings will allow EMPOWERment to include electric service in the cost of rent, further reducing the overall cost of living for low-income tenants.

“At EMPOWERment, we are experts in affordable housing, community organizing, and grassroots economic development. We are not solar experts. EMPOWERment added rooftop solar for its energy efficiency, health and environmental benefits, and lower costs for tenants,” said Delores Bailey, executive director of EMPOWERment Inc. “We’ve tried to resolve this conflict, but we have no choice other than file this complaint so our tenants can have affordable housing. Our building is at risk and ten families in our community are struggling with housing when they shouldn’t have to be.”

EMPOWERment Inc. is a nonprofit based in Chapel Hill that focuses on affordable housing. One of EMPOWERment’s major housing initiatives is the Pine Knoll EMPOWERment Affordable Community Housing or “P.E.A.C.H.” Apartments, a $3.5 million ten-unit building to house low-income residents in a historically African American neighborhood. The Pine Knoll neighborhood was originally created so that African American employees of UNC and the UNC hospital could live nearby. EMPOWERment wanted to further that same goal by giving people a place to live near where they work.

The P.E.A.C.H. Apartments are intended to serve Orange County residents earning at or below 30% of the area median income, many of whom are single parents working minimum-wage or near-minimum-wage jobs, typically earning between $11 and $16 an hour. Some potential tenants are currently living in unstable conditions—such as “couch surfing” with friends or family—which is a form of homelessness. These unstable living situations highlight the critical and urgent need to open P.E.A.C.H. Apartments and provide these individuals with safe, permanent housing.

“This came about because people who are already doing some of the most valuable community-building work out there found a way to use solar energy to lower the cost of living for our low-income neighbors,” said Nick Jimenez, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Using solar energy to lower the cost of living to help neighbors who need it is about the best use of solar I can think of. EMPOWERment is absolutely within its rights here and it deserves electric service immediately.”

To facilitate the rooftop solar, EMPOWERment’s contractors installed a single electrical meter for the entire building, rather than an individual meter for each of the ten units. The contractors submitted these plans to Duke Energy in July of 2024 and Duke Energy ran the underground service for the single meter in October of 2024.

But in February of 2025, Duke Energy told EMPOWERment that it would not provide electrical service because of the single-meter configuration. State law allows master meters when utilities are included in rent—precisely EMPOWERment’s model for P.E.A.C.H. Apartments.

Ultimately, it became clear that EMPOWERment had only two options: rewire the building with ten meters, incurring major costs and months of delay, or file a complaint at the utilities commission seeking clarification of the law and requiring Duke Energy to provide service. Ten families—many experiencing hidden homelessness—are left in limbo, forced to juggle temporary arrangements, while a brand-new building sits empty, at risk of catastrophic damage from mold and mildew because Duke Energy refuses to provide service.

“We urge the North Carolina Utilities Commission to do what’s right: turn on the power, let these families come home, and support affordable, sustainable housing in our state,” added Leah Adeniji, deputy director of EMPOWERment Inc.