Duke Energy customers use record amount of electricity

Duke Energy Voluntary Conservation helps stabilize the electric grid during frigid temperatures and peak demand, reducing outages through load management, transmission system monitoring, and customer actions like turning off lights, unplugging appliances, and lowering usage.

Due to extremely cold temperatures and high-energy demand, Duke Energy Progress and Duke Energy Carolinas customers have used more energy than any previous winter day.

With more frigid temperatures in the forecast, the company continues to ask customers to conserve power during cold weather.

System operators are closely monitoring the electric transmission system. The company has an adequate supply of electricity to meet record demand today.

While all available generating units are operating amid near-record peak demand, customers could still experience power outages. This occurs because extremely heavy demand causes some equipment to break or overload a circuit. When that happens, a fuse or circuit breaker operates in the substation, just as it would in your home.

To help avoid this, Duke Energy requests customers turn off lights and unplug appliances.

As of early afternoon, electricity had been restored to more than 100,000 customers in the Carolinas – and Duke Energy Carolinas continues to make restorations as outages occur.

Earlier recently, Duke Energy asked for voluntary conservation from its industrial and residential customers due to these severe conditions.

“The voluntary conservation efforts of our industrial and residential customers helped ensure our ability to provide a steady supply of electricity to our customers,” said Nelson Peeler, vice president, system operations. “We appreciate our customers’ patience and cooperation during this historic weather event.”

Certain Duke Energy customers participate in voluntary load management programs that are designed to help reduce electricity demand during periods of unusually high usage, a topic addressed in a recent hearing as well. Typically, those periods occur during the heat of summer or the coldest days of winter.

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