Currently, there are approximately 10,000 customer outages in the Greenville, S.C. area. Duke Power and off-system crews are working to restore power to those customers by midnight tonight. The rest of the Duke Power service area is experiencing a few scattered outages.  During this storm, crews have responded to more than 30,000 customer outages. 

“This morning we evaluated the overnight outages and were able to redirect crews to the hardest hit areas,” says E.O. Ferrell, Duke Power’s senior vice president of electric distribution. Duke Power crews partnered with 900 personnel from other utilities. 

This coordination of off-system support is possible through the Southeast Electric Exchange -- an organization of 18 investor-owned utilities located in the Southeast from Maryland to Florida and as far west as Oklahoma. When a storm is expected, utility members conduct conference calls to discuss weather conditions, advance requests for crew/availability and how to effectively deploy resources among member utilities. Since each storm is unique, utilities evaluate their own needs in order to determine how many crews they can send. During the December 2002 ice storm, Duke Power was able to use this network of utility crews after those utilities made certain their needs were handled.

Duke Power is now releasing some off-system crews to work in other areas of the country or to return to their home utility.

All downed power lines and any object touching a line should be regarded as potentially energized and dangerous.  Outages should be reported by calling 1-800-POWERON (1-800-769-3766).   Spanish speaking customers can call 1-800-943-6914 to report an outage.   

THIS IS THE FINAL WRITTEN UPDATE OF THE DAY.  MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES SHOULD CALL THE DUKE POWER MEDIA LINE AT 704-382-8333, AND SELECT OPTION 1.

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 17,800 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.