“Despite the inclement weather, we made solid progress today and are on-track to complete at least 90 percent of the restorations by midnight Wednesday,” said E.O. Ferrell, senior vice president of electric distribution for Duke Power. “We appreciate our customers’ continued patience. We will not rest until all restorations are made.”   

There are still approximately 256,800 Duke Power customers without power. Most of the remaining restoration work is taking place in Charlotte, Burlington, Chapel Hill, Durham, Gastonia, Greensboro, Highpoint, Kannapolis and Salisbury in North Carolina, and in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

The more than 1.3 million outages from the December 5 ice storm are almost twice the number of outages from previous benchmarks: The ice storm of February 1996 affected 660,000 customers, and just under 700,000 customers were out of service during Hurricane Hugo in 1989. In the 1996 ice storm, it took 10 days to restore the 660,000 customers who lost power. In this ice storm, the Duke Power crews matched that restoration number in only three days.

Reminders:

·         If your power remains off when a neighbor’s power is back on, the company advises you to call 1-800-POWERON (1/800-769-3766).

·         The line offers options for Spanish speaking customers. (Si su casa sigue sin servicio eléctrico y sus vecinos ya tienen electricidad, favor de llamar al teléfono de Duke Power, 1-800-POWERON (1-800-943-6914). Nuestras operadoras pueden atenderle en español.)

·         Regularly scheduled work by Duke Power may be delayed while crews focus on restoring all outages. The company appreciates its customers’ continued patience.
 

·         Customers are cautioned to make sure their meter box has not been damaged. If the meter box is damaged or pulled away from the building, customers need to contact a licensed electrician for repairs and their local county inspection office for an inspection.   

YOU CAN CALL OUR MEDIA OUTAGE LINE AT 704/382-8333 FOR UPDATES. PLEASE PRESS OPTION 1. THIS OPTION WILL ALSO ALLOW YOU TO REACH A REPRESENTATIVE FOR INTERVIEW.

Duke Power, a business unit of Duke Energy, is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities and provides safe, reliable, competitively priced electricity to approximately two million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina. Duke Power operates three nuclear generating stations, eight coal-fired stations, 31 hydroelectric stations and numerous combustion turbine units. Total system generating capability is approximately 19,300 megawatts. More information about Duke Power is available on the Internet at: www.dukepower.com.

Duke Energy is a diversified multinational energy company with an integrated network of energy assets and expertise. The company manages a dynamic portfolio of natural gas and electric supply, delivery and trading businesses – meeting the energy needs of customers throughout North America and in key markets around the world. Duke Energy, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available on the Internet at: www.duke-energy.com.