Duke Energy has announced Power/Forward Carolinas -- a $13 billion, 10-year project to modernize the state's electric system.
These upgrades will harden the system against storms and outages; make it safer and more resilient against cyber-attacks and physical threats; help expand renewable energy; generate jobs and stimulate economic growth.
It will also give 7 million people in North Carolina more information to manage their energy use.
"Safely powering the lives of hard-working families and maintaining the vitality of our communities are our most important responsibilities," said David Fountain, Duke Energy's North Carolina president. "When we improve our energy infrastructure, we not only improve power quality and reliability for everyone, but we help grow our economy and create jobs while keeping energy at a reasonable price."
Duke Energy's 10-year modernization plan for NC will result in:
- Additional bill-lowering tools designed to help customers reduce their energy costs
- An average of 13,900 jobs each year
- $10.4 billion in salaries and wages
- Almost $800 million in state taxes and $550 million in local taxes
- A total economic output of $21.5 billion over the 10 years
Modernizing the electric system
Meeting the demands of today's technological and customer-driven changes to North Carolina's grid — the sixth-largest in the nation — is becoming more challenging. Duke Energy's Power/Forward Carolinas initiative will help the company better serve its customers with focused investments that:
- Move targeted power lines underground to help reduce outages;
- enhance grid technologies to self-identify problems and reroute power, decreasing outage numbers and duration;
- advance smart metering infrastructure to enable more bill-lowering tools;
- protect against physical and cyber-security threats and keep the grid safe; and
- support the sustainable growth of renewable energy and emerging technologies.
"We must embrace a forward-thinking approach to building a smarter energy future for North Carolina," Fountain said. "We have been working hard to generate cleaner, smarter electricity, and now we must invest to make the system that delivers that energy even smarter."
For more information on Duke Energy's Power/Forward Carolinas plan to build a smarter energy future, visit www.duke-energy.com/our-company/future.
