Duke Energy on rolling blackouts: ‘We are sorry for what our customers experienced’

RALEIGH, N.C. — Duke Energy appeared in front of state regulators on Tuesday to answer questions about the Christmas Eve rolling blackouts it implemented across the Carolinas.

The utility company began by offering an apology to its customers for what happened.

Last month, Duke Energy turned off power ahead of a cold blast that arrived the week of Christmas. The blackouts came as a surprise to many customers. In a statement, Duke Energy said it had less power available over the Christmas weekend than it had originally estimated, which led to the decision to instate the rolling blackouts.

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On Tuesday, Duke Energy apologized for what happened.

“We are sorry for what our customers experienced,” said Julie Janson, executive vice president and CEO of 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 went on to say the outages, some of which lasted longer than originally estimated, happened because the equipment that automatically disconnects and restores power failed. They said this led to a communication failure with their 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 North Carolina state president Kendal Bowman.

“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 added.

You can read the full statement from Duke Energy here.

Duke Energy releases timeline around blackouts

In Tuesday’s hearing with the North Carolina Utilities Commission, Brooks laid out a timeline explaining the two factors that flipped their cold weather plan on its head: “Usage spikes at a higher rate than forecasted, and the energy deposits ... not available due to those groups being in that situation as well.”

So the utility company began the rolling outages. Many customers were notified after the fact, first through social media or on the news. Text messages were actually the last way the information went out -- they were sent late in the morning on Christmas Eve.

“One of the challenges is we originally communicated these would be short outages,” Brooks said.

One group that’s been reaching out to Channel 9 for answers is made up of those in Duke Energy’s “medically essential” program. Those individuals rely on power for life-saving medical equipment.

Some members of the program said they didn’t get the text messages Duke Energy said it sent to them. And some families who should be on it said they’ve never heard of the list at all.

Brooks was quick to acknowledge the program’s obscurity and promised a review of Duke Energy’s communications and outreach. Right now, just over 3,000 customers are enrolled across the Carolinas. He said in normal situations, the list helps to expedite the restoration of power to those in the group. But in an emergency like this last one, that’s not always possible.

“When you get into major storm events, that becomes a lot more challenging,” Brooks said. “Every line is going to have a few of those customers on it. So when you cut a line, it’s challenging to be able to restore a few customers because of the scale of the event.”

Channel 9′s Madison Carter asked Brooks what he’d say to customers who are upset and feeling like they’re not a priority.

“We don’t want any customer to feel we aren’t hearing them,” Brooks said. “And we can look at, from a communications process especially, for those that depend on electricity.”

Throughout the three-hour hearing Tuesday, leaders maintained that intentionally turning off the power was the right thing to do.

For the rest of their customers, Channel 9 was first to report Duke Energy is considering paying out liability claims for lost food, medication and hotel stays since the outages were intentional and lasted longer than expected. When asked for an update on that, they said they don’t quite have a plan for reviewing those claims, but it is a priority.

Federal regulators are working to make sure Duke never has to implement intentional outages again. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is asking for new standards to ensure there will be reliable power from energy suppliers during extreme weather events. A Duke spokesperson says they’ve already started shoring up their equipment in anticipation of the new requirements.

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