CHARLOTTE ń Duke Energy personnel are responding to the winter storm that interrupted service to about 185,000 customers across the company’s North and South Carolina service territory.
“This storm has created a significant number of customer outages,” said Brett Carter, president of Duke Energy Carolinas. “Restoration efforts began overnight and our crews will continue to work as safely and quickly as possible until every customer is restored.”
This morning, additional teams joined repair crews in the field to conduct a damage assessment. That information will help the company estimate when the power will be restored in various communities.
“We recognize customers are anxious to know when the power will be restored at their home. We hope to have that information later this afternoon,” said Carter.
Given the size of the storm and the number of customers impacted, restoration work will continue beyond today.
The quickest way for customers to report power outages is by calling 1-800-POWERON (1-800-769-3766); Spanish speaking customers can reach Duke Energy, toll-free, by dialing 1-866-4-APAGON (1-866-427-2466). Additional storm tips and outage information can be found on the Duke Energy web at http://www.duke-energy.com/. Customers can also get storm news updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DukeEnergyStorm.
Duke Energy focuses on restoration efforts in the following sequence, many of which occur simultaneously. This sequence enables power restoration to public health and safety facilities and to the greatest number of locations in the shortest length of time:
– Public safety related situations (such as de-energizing live lines);
– Emergency service facilities (hospitals, law enforcement, fire departments);
– Critical infrastructure (water and sewer facilities);
– Main distribution lines, the “backbone” of the power delivery system;
– Smaller distribution lines, which connect the backbone to individual locations (neighborhood lines); and
– Finally individual service lines.