By Sonny Jones
Duke Energy officials Tuesday told members of the N.C. Utilities Commission that a rapid series of events late on Dec. 23 and early on Dec. 24 forced the company to initiate the automated power outages that affected about 500,000 customers in the Carolinas on Christmas Eve.
Duke Energy customers in Bladen County lost power about 7 a.m. Dec. 24. In a news release, Duke Energy said it expected “load shedding” to continue until at least 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and be in 15 to 30 minute blocks although that timing could vary. However, many customers in Bladen County were without power until early Saturday afternoon.
In its presentation before the commission, Duke Energy officials explained the unique chain of events leading up to the curtailment of power to customers in North Carolina and South Carolina resulting from historic cold weather and extremely high customer demand for electricity caused by Winter Storm Elliott. The company noted that it was the first rotating outages it had instituted in its history.
A combination of rapidly plunging temperatures, demand for electricity that outpaced projections, diminished generation capacity and the loss of purchased power the company was relying on resulted in the outages, company officials told the board. The move was taken as a preventive measure to avoid potentially larger and longer outages across the system.
Duke executives said power generation at three North Carolina plant locations — coal-fired Mayo and Roxboro and natural gas-powered Dan River — were essentially cut in half early Dec. 24 when insulated instrumentation lines froze, The Associated Press reported.
“We are sorry for what our customers experienced,” said Julie Janson, executive vice president and CEO, Duke Energy Carolinas. “We regret not being able to provide customers as much advance notice as we would have liked, and acknowledge that the outages themselves lasted far longer than we first expected.”
Duke Energy officials also met with Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday inside the Governor’s Office.
The Governor outlined his concerns about the surprise rotational outages and asked specific questions about why the predictions on the power that would be needed were wrong and why the coal and gas plants Duke identified failed to generate the required amount of electricity, according to a new release from the Governor’s Office. He also stated his concerns about the lack of expected communication with customers.
The company explained to the Utilities Commission and the Governor the length of the outages, which in some cases lasted longer than the original estimation, resulted from a failure of the automated tool used to disconnect and then restore power, requiring circuits to be restored manually. It also interfered with the company’s ability to communicate effectively with customers.
“The fast-moving pace of events leading up to the temporary outages did not permit us to be as proactive in our communications as we would have liked, and although we provided information to customers across news media, social media and our company website throughout the day, the information was not as accurate as what our customers are typically accustomed to,” said Kendal Bowman, North Carolina state president.
“We own what happened. We have set out on a path to ensure that if we are faced with similar challenges, we will see a different outcome and provide a better customer experience,” said Janson.
“That begins by following the facts wherever they lead. We have launched internal reviews of our systems and procedures, and we will also examine how other providers responded to this regional event for any best practices we can learn.”
Low temperatures over Christmas weekend were in the high teens to mid-20s in Bladen County
“This is the first time in our company’s history that we had to implement rolling service disruptions, and although the majority of our power plants performed well in the storm, the outage process did not go as smoothly as we would have liked and we did not deliver the reliable performance that our customers expect,” Bowman said.
About Author
