Duke Energy has ended temporary outages and is focusing on restoring power in the Carolinas
Duke Energy announced that it will now be concentrating on power restoration following a series temporary outages in the Carolinas.
To protect the power grid, the company started temporary outages at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Just before 12 p.m., they told Channel 9′s Joe Bruno that they were no longer rotating outages.
“We are taking a methodical approach to restoring customers bringing on small groups sequentially so that we can keep power reliable for all customers as we complete these restorations,” Duke Energy said.
Duke Energy says the extreme cold weather is creating unprecedented demand on its system.
The company is asking residents to conserve electricity while they restore any remaining outages.
Mecklenburg County has more than 29,000 customers without power as of Saturday 12:30 pm. according to Duke Energy’s outage maps.
The county reported approximately 400 outages. Duke Energy stated that repairs and damage assessments were ongoing.
Over 6,000 outages caused Saturday’s blackout in the Carolinas left more than 300,000.
ALSO READ: Residents brace for bitterly cold temperatures in the North Carolina mountains
Governor Cooper released a statement on Saturday regarding outages, saying:
“This morning I spoke with Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good to offer assistance and to express urgency about the need to restore power quickly in this extreme cold while keeping customers accurately informed. I’m grateful for the workers braving the wind and cold to get the power back on.”
Residents in Gastonia are asked to reduce their energy use for the next 48 hours because of the possibility of rolling blackouts.
Rock Hill has announced that rolling blackouts could be possible for periods of up to 15 minutes. Duke Energy also confirmed that they will not provide a schedule of when and where blackouts will occur.
The complete list of outages within our region can be found here.
This is an ongoing story. Keep checking back wsoctv.com.
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