Dilworth Community Grid Improvements

As Charlotte continues to grow, we must upgrade and expand the energy infrastructure to power the community. Duke Energy is working hard to make sure that the energy infrastructure serving the Dilworth area and other Charlotte communities can reliably serve customers now and in the future. Improvements, such as substation upgrades, as well as new and upgraded power lines, will help increase electric capacity in the area to sustainably support this growth. 

In addition to growth, Duke Energy wants to make sure that all customers enjoy the same high level of reliability and service. A recent reliability analysis identified locations that could benefit from new smart technologies, pole replacements and upgrades, vegetation management and other improvements to make sure service remains reliable now and in the years ahead.

Various phases of the work along roads will likely include temporary traffic flow changes and potential temporary lane closures. Large utility and construction equipment, as well as utility crews, will be present in work zones. A planned outage may also be necessary to complete certain projects. We will notify affected customers prior to any planned outage.

This phase of construction is anticipated to take three months, weather permitting.

For portions of the project, crews may need to access overhead lines and equipment located behind homes and businesses. This work may require access through gates or fences. We will notify property owners in advance, if such access is required.

Most of the neighborhood work being conducted involves overhead equipment and should not create impacts to customer property. In areas where underground equipment is being installed, crews will restore the area to pre-work conditions. Additionally, site restoration and improvements will occur as part of the completion of the Kenilworth substation project. 

We are making strategic improvements to the power grid in Charlotte to increase reliability, strengthening the grid against severe weather and other threats, expand innovative technologies like solar battery storage, and provide customers with more control over the energy use and tools to save money.

We are conducting many improvements in Charlotte, such as:

• Pole and line upgrades to strengthen the grid against outages from severe weather
• Self-healing technologies that automatically detect power outages and reroute service to restore power faster
• Additional energy pathways and smart technology around critical areas of the city, such as uptown, the airport and hospitals, to provide new tools to avoid outages and restore power faster when outages occur
• Reliability improvements in areas that have experienced a higher number of outages
• Strategic undergrounding of outage-prone line segments to improve reliability for customers
• Increasing substation and line capacity in fast-growing areas of Mecklenburg County and the region

In addition, Duke Energy customers in the area can access new tools and options through their smart meter, including hourly and daily usage information, to help better manage energy use and save money.

Learn more about the ways Duke Energy is working to build a better energy grid in North Carolina.