Duke Energy confident on NC power grid as Texas recovers from Hurricane Beryl

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- It's been almost a week since Hurricane Beryl slammed into Texas and millions of residents are still without power as of Friday.

Experts say that deteriorating power grid infrastructure, and population growth, could be some of the factors contributing to a slow recovery in Hurricane Beryl's aftermath.

But as the hurricane season continues with already a record-smashing start, Duke Energy's Jeff Brooks said he's confident about the power grid in North Carolina.

"We've been engaged in a multiyear great improvement strategy over the last few years that's going to continue for a few years," Brooks said.

Some of the work includes upgrading poles and wires across the system, especially in areas that are vulnerable to high winds, such as coastal areas.

"Changing out wood poles to steel poles in some areas, hard to access areas, making sure those poles can withstand high winds," Brooks said. "We've added flood protections around many of our substations in eastern North Carolina that are in flood prone areas, and we continue to look for the most outage-prone power lines."

North Carolina is no stranger to severe weather. Friday's storms knocked out power to a few thousand Duke Energy customers across the Triangle.

However, every storm comes with a lesson that Brooks said they're using to make the grid smarter and stronger.

"We're building a grid that's ready for the years ahead," Brooks said. "We're making our system more resilient as well."

Other improvements include smarter technology that can detect outages and restore service faster, in addition to maintaining trees that's often the cause of power outages.

Brooks said they're also keeping up with the population growth by adding cleaner resources to the grid expansion.

"As we add more renewables ... all of that diverse mix is going to be needed to meet these rapidly growing energy needs in our state," Brooks said. "The electric grid has to be improved with it because you can have all that power, but we want to make sure that the grid is ready to deliver it reliably to customers as well."