No more rolling blackouts, Duke Energy says, amid criticism from Gov. Roy Cooper
Duke Energy will no longer need to perform rolling blackouts, the company said Monday, after crippling outages surprised customers across the Carolinas over the Christmas holiday weekend.
Rolling blackouts — temporary power outages the company said were necessary to “extend available power” — affected thousands of Triangle residents as temperatures plummeted into the single digits on Christmas Eve.
Gov. Roy Cooper expressed displeasure with the surprise outages in a Tweet Monday, saying he was “deeply concerned about people who lost power and who didn’t get notice...”
“I’ve asked Duke for a complete report on what went wrong and for changes to be made,” he added.
The intentional blackouts were designed to offset demand, Duke Energy said, as the company contended with one of the region’s coldest holiday weekends. Saturday’s high in Raleigh — 29 degrees Fahrenheit — was the coldest calendar day ever recorded on Christmas Eve, according to NWS Raleigh.
On Sunday, Christmas Day, Duke Energy asked its customers to save energy to prevent further disruptions along the electric grid. The company asked if people would “consider powering down all nonessential electric devices” to help avoid rotating outages in the early morning hours Sunday and Monday.
By Monday morning, Duke Energy said conservation efforts were no longer needed from customers, and the company would no longer need to create controlled blackouts throughout the region.
Why did Duke Energy create blackouts over Christmas?
Duke Energy said Saturday that the controlled blackouts were unavoidable.
“Due to extremely cold temperatures driving unusually high demand, we have begun short, temporary power outages across our system,” the company said on its website, as The N&O reported at the time. “These emergency outages, also known as rolling blackouts, are necessary to protect the energy grid against longer, more widespread outages.”
Duke said the rolling blackouts would last 15 to 30 minutes, although “in some cases, a crew will need to be dispatched, extending restoration times.”
Another temporary round of outages wasn’t needed Sunday, but Duke Energy asked customers to continue conserving energy through 10 a.m. Monday “to avoid possible rotating outages.”
This story was originally published December 26, 2022 at 1:51 PM.
