Hurricane season 2026 has arrived, here's how Duke Energy keeps power on during storms
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Duke Energy says about 80 percent of Triangle customers now rely on this self-healing technology, which is more than double from just three years ago.
The tool is used every day, especially during storms.
The utility company says the tool is critical as we enter hurricane season.
"We're able to get more customers back on that would normally be sitting in the dark until that can be fixed," said Duke Energy DCC Operator Natalie Poole.
The Raleigh facility was built to handle Category 4 hurricane winds.
Staff trains year-round, and 17,000 wood poles have been replaced with steel to better withstand high winds. Duke Energy says more than 60,000 trees have been trimmed to help reduce outages.
"This particular technology in 2025 helped to avoid about 1.2 million customer outages here, and that helped to save about 3,000,000 hours of outage time across the Carolinas. So this is a real tool," said Duke Energy Spokesperson Jeff Brooks. "It's delivering real benefits to customers every day and it's one that we rely heavily on during storms."
The utility company is currently seeking an 18% rate increase for residential customers.
The double-digit increase would be spread over two years and Brooks says the company's request reflects investments made to the grid.
ABC11 asked why Duke Energy is putting this request at a time when people are struggling with higher gas and food prices.
"We don't take that request lightly, and we do everything that we can to reduce our costs or to spread costs over time to be able to reduce impacts as much as possible, but we do recognize that that this any increase is going to be challenging for some customers," said Brooks.
The company says more people are moving to North Carolina and that an additional 150,000 customers have been added to the grid over the last two years.
"(If) you drive around the triangle, you can see the growth happening and that requires new substations, new, transmission lines, new poles and wires, all of that," said Brooks. "Our customers expect us to deliver reliable service on blue sky days and during storms."
State regulators are expected to rule on the proposed rate hike this fall.
