Duke Energy is a large name in the energy industry, serving millions of customers in the midwest, including the commercial, educational and residential sectors of Butler County.
Its connection to Oxford stems from Ohio’s deregulation of the electricity market. This means customers can choose which provider to buy energy from. Oxford’s local electricity and gas service providers include Butler Rural Electric Cooperative, Duke Energy and GlenwoodEnergy, according to the City of Oxford website.
“Sometimes we call it going out to the apple orchard – buying the apples and then selling them to customers,” said John Juech, director of public affairs and communications for Duke Energy.
With over 20,000 employees, Duke is one of the top three investor-owned utility companies in the U.S. Juech attributes Duke’s prominence to valued workers, reliability and community connection.
“What I think is exceptional about this company is how skilled and dedicated our employees are,” Juech said.
Part of Duke’s success is because of its “all-of-the-above approach” – meaning Duke sources energy from nuclear, natural gas, coal, solar, wind and hydrogen projects. Juech said this approach improves Duke’s affordability and reliability.
“The only way that we can effectively and reliably provide that power is to do the whole range,” Juech said.
Rhett Bilski, owner of the College Artisans Shop and current senior at Miami, said the shop buys from Duke because of inheritance. The former owner had an account with Duke that was transferred to Bilski with ownership.
Limited competition against Duke provides the company with many customers in the Oxford community. Bilski said his apartment recommended buying from Duke because of their popularity in the area.
“I know my apartment uses Duke, the store uses Duke, it’s like I don’t really have a choice,” Bilski said.
Oxford is now bringing new energy options for the community. The City of Oxford has approved a new Electric Aggregation Program, starting January 2026, in partnership with the Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council. According to the City of Oxford website, participating customers will receive 100% renewable energy at a cheaper rate than Duke’s current standard service rate.
Bilski said while he didn’t originally know about this opportunity, he was interested in the program. His concern was difficulty regarding switching energy providers.
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“When I had to take over [the College Artisans Shop] and energy provider with Duke, it was ridiculously difficult for me. I felt like I had to communicate with three different parties, and it was very challenging,” Bilski said.
Miami University is another large customer for Duke. Susan Meikle, writer for University Communications and Marketing, described the connection between Miami and Duke as a business partnership, as Duke is the primary electricity provider for Miami.
Both Duke and Miami have future plans for renewable energy. Miami’s carbon neutrality goal is 2040, while Duke’s goal is to phase out coal plants by 2040 and to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, according to the Miami 2040 Climate Action Plan and Duke Energy 2024 Impact Report.
Separate from Duke, Miami’s plan for carbon neutrality involves decarbonization and reducing purchased electricity, then the possibility of offsetting remaining emissions. Meikle said the topic of purchasing carbon offsets has been pushed to 2030, as the main focus is reducing emissions through energy production.
“Our carbon footprint calculation for our Climate Action Plan includes faculty and student commuting,” Meikle said. “That is what we will have to purchase offsets for, as we get closer to that in the future.”
Carbon offsets are a part of Duke’s neutrality plan, but the core transitions are in energy supply and production. According to Duke’s Illumination Article on reaching net-zero emissions, new technologies and investment are key to carbon reduction.
Increasing technology within AI and data centers also increases demand for Duke Energy. Juech said Duke is committed to fulfilling new demands while supporting current customers.
The transition to sustainable energy takes both time and innovation. The various factors included in energy production create a complex topic of discussion.
“[Change] involves so many people, power plants, investments, financing, capital, so it can’t really happen overnight,” Juech said.
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