NC governor demands Duke Energy report on why no warning of rolling power outages
Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday he is “deeply concerned” about those who lost power over the Christmas weekend but didn’t receive notice from Duke Energy about the temporary blackouts ahead of time.
Cooper made the comments on Twitter, and said he is demanding that the Charlotte-based company provide him “a complete report on what went wrong and for changes to be made.”
Duke Energy implemented the rare move of rolling outages in the Carolinas on Saturday morning, Christmas Eve, to help offset demand during one of the region’s coldest Christmas Days in years. Hundreds of thousands of customers across NC and SC were unexpectedly left without power because of that action.
When asked to comment on Cooper’s criticisms, Duke Energy spokesman Bill Norton said the company plans to “thoroughly evaluate the way it serves customers during extreme conditions.
“We were not able to communicate as proactively as we normally do given the dynamic nature of the situation and fast moving events,” Norton said.
Just in the Charlotte region at one point, there were over 100,000 outages Saturday, mostly attributable to the temporary blackouts.
The controlled blackouts were supposed to last 15 to 30 minutes across the Carolinas. Duke Energy said it had been restoring power to about 10,000 customers at a time, but many people said they waited hours to see their power come back.
Duke Energy back to normal operations
With temperatures rising Monday in the Charlotte region and the Carolinas, Duke Energy no longer needs to implement another round of temporary blackouts to protect grid stability, Norton said earlier on Monday.
The company renewed normal operations.
He added that Duke Energy is thankful to customers who conserved energy this weekend, and noted, “the system performed well overnight, we are grateful to our customers,” Norton said.
Angry over power outages
Duke Energy did not announce the blackouts until after they were happening. A number of angry customers took to social media to vent their frustrations, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
At one point Saturday morning, about 100,000 customers had no power in the Charlotte region.
By 7 a.m. Sunday, power had been restored to most of the area, with a Duke Energy outage map showing fewer than 1,000 customers without power in Mecklenburg County.
As of Monday afternoon, approximately 2,102 NC customers were without power, according to Duke Energy’s outage map.
In a Monday afternoon email to customers, Duke Energy thanked people for their patience and understanding, “especially to those who had to wait, sometimes for hours longer than planned over a holiday weekend, for their power to be restored.”
Charlotte’s weather for the week
Temperatures began to slowly warm up Monday in the Charlotte area, according to the National Weather Service in Greer, South Carolina.
Charlotte should see a high of 38 degrees during the day, and a low of 26 degrees Monday evening. This week will also warm-up considerably, with highs in the 40s and 50s, the NWS said.
By Friday, Charlotte is expected to reach a high of 60 degrees.
This story was originally published December 26, 2022 at 11:19 AM with the headline "NC governor demands Duke Energy report on why no warning of rolling power outages."
