CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Duke Energy customers were told to expect temporary power outages in the Carolinas on Saturday, as the utility company coped with hundreds of thousands left in the dark, after windy winter weather took a toll on the power grid.
As of 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, Duke’s online power outage map listed nearly 520,000 customers without service.
Duke released this statement:
“Due to extreme conditions and demand for electricity on the electric system, Duke Energy is currently taking emergency steps to manage customer electric use. We are conducting emergency temporary interruptions of service to customers to extend available power generation and help maintain operations until additional power is available. These outages are temporary and rotated among customers and will continue until additional electricity is available and normal operation of the power grid resumes. We expect load shedding to continue until at least 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. Load shed typically rotates outages in 15-30 minute blocks.”
“We understand how difficult an outage can be during extreme temperatures, especially during a holiday. And we also realize many customers experienced an outage from yesterday’s storm or may still be experiencing an outage. Our crews continue to work throughout the day to repair remaining outages from yesterday’s wind storm and we will return to normal operations from these temporary outages for all customers as soon as we are able.”
Wind related issues began impacting the power grid on Friday morning, with power outages fluctuating in the holiday weekend.
