“I would like to thank all the Duke Power employees, contract crews and electric workers that have worked around the clock, in difficult conditions, to address this challenge,” said E. O. Ferrell, senior vice president of electric distribution for Duke Power.  “Our team restored electric service to an average of 152,800 customers a day.” 

“We appreciate the tremendous cooperation and leadership exhibited by state, county and community agencies and officials. This has been an extraordinary storm and we have had extraordinary teamwork,” continued Ferrell.

High winds and heavy rains resulted in several thousand new outages on Friday.  The majority of those outages are restored and are unrelated to last week’s ice storm. Customers experiencing outages should call Duke Power at 1-800-POWERON.

“We have crews available to address new outages, outages that are linked to needed customer equipment repairs and any outages that have not yet been reported,” continued Ferrell. 

Duke Energy does not plan to apply to the utility commissions for a rate increase related to the storm costs in either North Carolina or South Carolina. The company will incorporate storm costs into the existing rate structure.

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.

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