Duke Energy is preparing to respond quickly and restore power faster during the next storm before the start of hurricane season in 2024.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects an above-normal hurricane season with 17 to 25 named storms in 2024, including 8 to 13 hurricanes, and 4 to 7 of those becoming major hurricanes. The forecast expects around 30% more storm activity as compared to the number of storms predicted in 2023.
While Duke Energy has a comprehensive and flexible storm response plan, the company’s advanced forecasting and damage modeling processes help place crews, support resources and equipment before the storm to respond quickly during outages.
Duke Energy comprises of more than 17,000 employees and contractors to respond to outages as well as partnerships with peer utilities provide additional resources to shorten response times and help communities recover faster.
Nearly 50% of Duke Energy customers benefit from self-healing and automated restoration technologies.
The company has completed a multi-year modernization project to construct seven new grid control centers across its six-state service area. These advanced facilities help efficiently manage crews and outage response after storms, and can monitor data points across the power grid in real time to give operators more control over system reliability every day.
The new facilities and ongoing grid improvements are also essential to supporting the company’s transition to cleaner energy options.
