Duke Energy apologizes for recent power outages

Duke Energy Corp. executives on Tuesday blamed a convergence of extreme cold, higher demand, malfunctioning equipment and the inability to buy power elsewhere for rolling blackouts on Christmas Eve.

Addressing state electric regulators, company leaders apologized because about 500,000 customers, or 11%, of its Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress subsidiary customers were subjected to the temporary outages. While power was restored to everyone before sundown Dec. 24, morning temperatures fell into the single digits and afternoon highs failed to reach freezing in many areas.

“I want to express how sorry we are for what our customers experienced,” Duke Energy Carolinas CEO Julie Janson told the North Carolina Utilities Commission at a briefing. “We own what happened. We have set out ... to ensure that if we’re faced with similar challenges, we will ... provide a better customer experience.”

Power generation at three North Carolina plant locations were essentially cut in half early Dec. 24 when instrumentation lines froze. Meanwhile, already contracted purchases of electric power on a regional transmission system didn’t happen because neighboring utilities had no supplies to share.

The Tennessee Valley Authority also imposed rolling blackouts on most of its 10 million electricity users on Dec. 23 and Dec. 24 for the first time in the utility’s 89-year history after TVA’s biggest coal plant shut down and natural gas plants failed to deliver enough power. TVA officials said last week they are investigating the power shortfall to find ways to avoid a repeat of the problem.