"I pay about $125 and then it doubles in summer and winter," he said.
Conerly shared one of his recent bills, showing overdue balances that continue to grow. He says he's doing everything he can to conserve energy, but it hasn't made a dent.
"Keeping the temperatures more controlled so that I'm not really running the HVAC system a whole lot," Conerly said.
Thousands of people are sharing similar experiences through a petition circulating on social media, calling for an independent audit of Duke Energy's billing system to investigate what they describe as "unexplained" spikes in charges.
One person wrote that they "are a single parent of three, and it's unacceptable for the bill to jump this high."
Another wrote that their "bill jumped nearly $200 from January to March."
"We understand a lot of customers are experiencing high bills right now. This is the season of the year when we tend to see our highest usage and our highest bill," Jeff Brooks, a Duke Energy spokesperson.
He said the company is aware of the petition but rejects its allegations of a billing issue, adding that the higher bills ultimately come down to customer energy usage.
"What most people are getting in the last couple of weeks would be bills from around probably mid-January through mid-February. So -- a lot of energy use," Brooks said. "Plus, you had a lot of people home. You think about all these snow days. We were home using more energy in our home."
Brooks said regulators keep a close and watchful eye, so any discrepancies or errors would be caught and corrected.
A state report found that electric bills in North Carolina have increased by about 22% since 2020.
This comes as Duke Energy is requesting a rate increase of 15% over two years.
If you want to voice your concerns, you can do so at a public hearing with the North Carolina Utilities Commission in Raleigh on March 30.