(RALEIGH) -- The North Carolina Utilities Commission continues a public hearing on Tuesday on a proposed rate hike from Duke Energy.  A group who oppose this rate increase held a rally in advance of the hearing on Monday.

Bill Wilson of NC AARP said it is hard to believe in a company that keeps changing its position. "It's really hard to sort of put much credibility in the rate request when it has been so high and then cut in half.  It makes you wonder, where's the data to put forth that kind of rate increase," said Wilson.

Duke Energy originally requested an 18.6 percent rate increase. Just last week the utility reached an agreement with the State Utility Commission's Public Staff to slash the rate hike request to 7.2 percent.

Duke spokesperson Betsy Conway says that the compromise of 7.2 percent is good for everyone involved. "That's essentially what the rate is that a customer pays.  It's the cost to build, operate and maintain the system, so we believe that the settlement that we've reached with the Public Staff really strikes a balance and is good for our customers as well as the company," said Conway.

Duke has 1.8 million customers in North Carolina. The proposed rate increase would add about 7 dollars to a typical monthly bill.