Duke Energy prepared for outages ahead of snow storm

Duke Energy crews will be in storm mode as snow moves into the Triangle on Wednesday, staged and ready to respond to power outages.

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On Tuesday, ABC11 got an inside look at Duke Energy's Distribution Control Center where employees work around the clock, managing how power is distributed to 1.3 million customers.

"We're taking inventories of our equipment and our vehicles, we're checking on availability of our crews and also operators here in this facility so that they can be on hand to respond and work in whatever conditions that we have," said Jeff Brooks, Duke Energy spokesperson.

Duke Energy is asking customers to conserve energy to help alleviate stress on the power grid.

The snow is forecast to hit just as Duke Energy is taking Harris Nuclear Plant offline for some unscheduled maintenance.

Brooks said even with the plant offline, they're ready to respond to whatever the winter storm brings.

"We plan for those scenarios and part of that planning is maintaining adequate reserves so that if we do have to take a unit offline, we can still reliably serve customers," Brooks said.