Climate Resiience

Grid hardening and reliability improvements

In recent years, we have:

• Upgraded thousands of miles of wires
• Expanded capacity to support automated power restoration and accommodate growth
• Upgraded wood transmission poles to steel in some hard-to-access and wind-exposed areas
• Strategically relocated outage-prone lines underground
• Installed permanent flood barriers around various substations in flood-prone areas
• Improved animal and other physical protections around substations
• Continued conducting a comprehensive vegetation management strategy to increase reliability and reduce the risk of outages on overhead power lines during storms 

Resiliency improvements 

Resiliency also includes how we conduct our daily operations. We recently completed the final additions to our fleet of state-of-the-art control centers. These centers are crucial during storms and modernize our grid by automating power restoration and enabling integration of solar, battery storage and electric vehicles. 

We are using advanced forecasting and predictive modeling to help identify potential outage locations before storms hit, allowing us to pre-position crews and resources to expedite power restoration. Our in-house meteorology and system planning teams use historical data and predictive modeling to anticipate future weather events, including climate impacts on our system. This allows us to plan and implement improvements to make our system more resilient. 

Our increased use of drones and damage assessment tools in the field helps assessors quickly provide outage information, allowing storm planners to create response plans and deploy crews faster to restoration locations. 

We use advanced equipment like tracked vehicles, amphibious bucket equipment, drones and helicopters to access hard-to-reach power lines and restore service faster. Our improved outage management systems allow dispatchers to send restoration jobs directly to software in utility trucks, giving customers better outage causes and restoration times.   

Our innovative use of tools and technology has helped improve system reliability and meet the growing energy needs of our customers.

• Caring for communities: Since 1984, Duke Energy Foundation has awarded over $500 million in grants to more than 20,000 charitable organizations. This equates to more than $30 million in charitable grants and nearly $4 million in volunteer hours from Duke Energy employees dedicated to nonprofit service each year. 
• Emergency preparedness and response: 
  
  • During the past five years, Duke Energy and its foundation have contributed over $20 million across North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee to enhance emergency preparedness and response. This funding covers costs for training, lifesaving equipment and new technology that assists in disaster planning and recovery operations.
  • During the past five years, Duke Energy its foundation and employees have awarded its long-standing partner American Red Cross more than $2.5 million in funding. 
• 2024 storm season: Duke Energy Foundation committed over $2 million in the wake of hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton in 2024. More than 2,000 employees donated or volunteered their time on community relief efforts such as blood drives, feeding events and donation packing. The Foundation double-matched employee donations to the American Red Cross, and its Relief4Employees program is actively granting dollars to employees personally impacted by these natural disasters.  
• Preparing for the 2025 storm season: To address the growing need for enhanced disaster resilience, the Foundation is on track to award $1.5 million in emergency preparedness grants in 2025. These funds will support nonprofits across its six states in their efforts to improve disaster preparedness, provide emergency response training, and implement initiatives that benefit vulnerable communities.

We are continuing our industry-leading work to understand the long-term exposure, risk and vulnerability to physical impacts of climate change to our assets, guided by our enterprisewide Climate Resilience and Adaptation Study.

We are leading with transparency and continue to advance our work with key stakeholders in each of our jurisdictions by listening, learning and adjusting. 

Beyond mitigating physical risk, Duke Energy is driving toward energy modernization at a prudent pace for customers while balancing affordability and reliability.  

We are actively investing in the resiliency of our system to address climate hazards that have the most significant impact on each of our unique service territories. 

As we design and plan for the deployment of our future fleet, we will consider: 

• Implementing new transmission and distribution infrastructure design standards to accommodate higher temperatures and to mitigate the impacts from flooding 
• Installing cooling towers in areas where water supply might be impacted by climate hazards 

These investments will supplement our ongoing commitment to effective transmission and distribution climate resiliency solutions, including targeted undergrounding and self-healing technology.