Duke Energy Fails To Provide Energy During Cold
Duke Energy failed to provide thousands of families in Durham with power due to a blackout last week. Many lost power for up to 30 hours. The outage was caused by a work crew damaging a substation, but was delayed by Duke’s difficulties in re-energizing cold wires affected by low winter temperatures.
“Once again, Duke Energy fails a predictable test – winter is cold,” said Dan Crawford, NCLCV Director of Governmental Relations. “Apparently, Duke CEO Lynn Good’s record salary and Duke’s record profits – while NC customers pay record rates – aren’t tied to providing reliable, low-cost energy, as the law (HB 951) requires. When will the NC Utilities Commission finally act and require Duke to include more renewable energy and battery storage – the lowest cost, most reliable option – in its plans? North Carolinians are paying for Duke’s failure with their wallets, while suffering in dark, cold houses. We call on the NC Utilities Commission to do something about it, rather than continuing to reward Duke Energy’s stockholders and executives.”
Not The First Time Duke Energy Failed
This is not the first time the regulated monopoly failed North Carolinians. On Christmas Eve 2022, approximately half a million North Carolinians lost power. Duke Energy issued these blackouts because of a surge in power demand due to a winter storm. The energy demand could not be met because of the failure of coal and gas plants. Instead of turning to renewables, this year Duke Energy seeks to continue production of gas plants. Gas plants are more profitable for Duke Energy. Why? Because the more expensive the project, the more money they make due to a guaranteed 10% return on investment by the NC Utilities Commission. This could be the reason they don’t want solar companies building in NC: they don’t get their 10% cut.
Duke Energy continues to line their pockets, all while ignoring the climate crisis and raising our energy bills.
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