Duke Energy Asks Carolinas Customers to Conserve Electricity

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – With the summer heat wave pushing the use of electricity to near record levels, Duke Energy officials are asking the company’s customers to conserve power while temperatures are so extreme.

“We’re running every generating unit we have available, and we’re purchasing available power from our neighboring utilities,” Ellen Ruff, Duke Energy Carolinas president, said. “We’re asking for the voluntary conservation to ensure that sufficient electricity is available for our customers’ critical needs. Energy conservation can help us meet our customers’ demand during the heat wave, and it can also help reduce customers’ power bills during the summer.”

Below are some of the steps customers can take:

• If it doesn’t interfere with the health or safety of the occupants, raise the setting on, or turn off, room and central air conditioners. Where possible, use fans: air that is circulating, even warm air, is more comfortable than still air.
• Avoid using appliances such as dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers until the evening hours, when the temperature begins to drop.
• If possible, avoid preparing hot meals in the kitchen during the day. Cooking adds heat to the house, which increases the discomfort level and makes air conditioners work harder.
• Close curtains, drapes or blinds during the day to reduce heat buildup.
• Use lighting sparingly. Bulbs, particularly incandescent bulbs, produce heat.

“We continue to monitor the situation and will keep our customers informed of actions that are needed,” Ruff said. “We know this is an inconvenience, and we do appreciate our customers’ patience and cooperation.”

Duke Energy typically adds 40,000 to 60,000 new customers in the Carolinas each year. One of the company’s top priorities is to determine the most efficient and environmentally sound way to meet our customers’ growing demand for electricity over the next 10 to 15 years. That’s why we are considering several options:

• Constructing a nuclear power plant in the Carolinas
• Constructing a modern and state-of-the-art pulverized coal-fired plant and retiring older, less efficient coal units in the Carolinas
• Pursuing additional energy efficiency and conservation measures to reduce our customers’ demand for electricity
• Pursuing renewable power plant technologies.

For more information about Duke Energy’s efforts to serve customers growing power demand, see the web site www.duke-energy.com/newgeneration.

Duke Energy is a diversified energy company with a portfolio of natural gas and electric businesses, both regulated and unregulated, and an affiliated real estate company. Duke Energy supplies, delivers and processes energy for customers in the Americas. Duke Energy’s Carolinas operations deliver safe, reliable and competitively priced electricity to more than 2.2 million electric customers in a 22,000 square mile service area of North Carolina and South Carolina. A diverse fuel mix of nuclear, coal-fired, hydroelectric and combustion-turbine generation provides approximately 28,000 megawatts of regulated generating capacity. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy 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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