Legislators grill Duke Energy about power outages
Contrite Duke Energy officials said Tuesday the giant utility should have done a better job telling customers why their power was out and when it would be restored after Hurricane Irma pounded Central Florida.
“I’d like to start with an apology — an apology to our customers,” said Chris Flack, Duke’s vice president of government affairs, during an appearance before state legislators who represent Seminole County. “Our customers want their information. They want to know when their lights are coming on. … But there was a lack of communication between the company and the customers.”
Flack vowed that Duke would do a better job
than it did during Irma, when confusion reigned as power outages multiplied during the Sept. 10-11 storm.
Crews were being sent to the wrong neighborhoods, Flack told lawmakers representing Seminole County at the meeting in Sanford. Some powerless customers were told incorrectly that their power was on — when it actually wasn’t — thereby delaying restoration for several more days.
Duke also told customers that power in Seminole and most of Central Florida would be restored by late Sunday. However, by 3 p.m. Tuesday, 14,410 Duke customers in Central Florida remained without power, including 4,311 in Seminole.
Genyth Travis, 42, was among the Duke customers who couldn’t get a straight answer.
On Thursday, the homes surrounding her house in the Forest Ridge subdivision in Altamonte Springs were finally able to turn on their lights after four days without power. But Travis and about 20 of her neighbors were still in the dark.
Travis called Duke several times that night, but an automated recording and a customer service representative erroneously told her that she did have power in her home.
“They told us it had been restored,” she said. “They said maybe there was something wrong with our breakers.”
By Tuesday morning, nine days after losing power, Travis was still unable to turn on her lights, take a hot shower or cook a meal in her home, she angrily told lawmakers.
“Their customer service has failed,” Travis said. “I feel that they are not prepared [for large storms]. … And I’m required to have Duke. I have no choice.”
The power finally came back on for Travis and her neighbors at 1:23 p.m. Tuesday.
Duke spokesman Jeff Brooks explained that some of the company’s automated systems malfunctioned after the storm. Information about power outages had to be transcribed manually, and some was recorded erroneously.
“It affected our ability to estimate the times for restoration and provide updates to customers,” Brooks said.
Angry residents across Central Florida blasted Duke for not providing enough information about power restoration in the days after Irma.
In the Facebook page for the Wekiva neighborhood of Seminole County, a frustrated woman without power posted: “Someone get my bail money ready, because I’m ready to head over to Duke’s offices.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, a woman walked up to a Duke official and said, “You had your nice hot shower this morning. I’m still waiting for mine.”
Duke provides power to nearly 1.8 million customers in 35 Florida counties. Irma knocked out power to about 1.2 million customers spread across 33 counties.
In Central Florida, 553,529 Duke customers experienced power outages — 313,756 in Orange, 143,171 in Seminole, 61,075 in Lake and 35,527 in Osceola.
The storm toppled 3,000 power poles, killed 1,100 transformers and brought down 1,000 miles of power lines across the state.
“Seminole was one of the hardest-hit areas,” Flack said. Roughly 75 percent of the county — just over 176,000 residents with Duke and other companies — lost power.
Duke was invited by state Rep. Bob Cortes, RAltamonte Springs, the delegation chairman. He wanted to hear Duke’s “realistic plan to ensure that all residents are clearly notified of restoration updates.” Cortes blasted Duke officials for not doing a better job using social media — including Facebook, Twitter and Next Door — to regularly update residents.
Also attending Tuesday’s meeting were state Reps. Scott Plakon, R–Longwood, and Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, as well as state Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs.
Simmons sternly told Duke officials that the company needs to develop a better plan for future storms and not repeat the same mistakes “so that we don’t have huge numbers of customers that are without service. This is the time to do more than simply put together an analysis of what went wrong, but put together a plan for the future.” Brooks agreed. “We’re going to take a lot of time to look very hard at the lessons we learned from this storm,” he said. “There’s a lot of things we did well. There’s a lot of things that we can do better. … Every storm is a learning experience, and this one taught us a lot.”