By Lauren Griggs
As we head into a cold, wintery day, we want to share with you all that Duke Energy is doing to keep your power on through this cold snap.
This week, we expect to achieve all-time winter peaks of power demand across the Carolinas which is a testament to the growing population and the economic development wins South Carolina continues to experience. To ensure we are meeting our customer’s needs, we will be operating all our available diverse generation resources including nuclear, coal, natural gas, solar, batteries and hydro. Our residential and industrial demand-side management programs have been tested and we expect to utilize these programs over the coming days to help reduce demand. We expect the tight energy supplies will continue throughout the week.
Duke Energy is also monitoring the potential for winter weather, specifically in the eastern parts of South Carolina. We have a detailed storm response plan and are prepared to respond. Crews are ready to support outage restoration in areas impacted by the weather. An advantage of being a large utility is that we are well-equipped to support our service areas and can move crews quickly to where outages occur.
Weather update
Arctic high pressure will remain entrenched across the region through tonight. Meanwhile, a weak storm system will move over the Southeast US tonight into Wednesday morning, bringing light snow to the region. The overnight weather models are showing a noticeable northward and westward shift of the expected snow shield this evening through early Wednesday and now thinking that most locations along and southeast of I-85 will see some measurable snow, though the highest amounts of accumulation are still expected to occur east of I-95 which are forecast to be 2-5”. Snow could lead to power outages, though the primary risk is hazardous roadways.
Light snow reaches the Duke Energy Progress region late afternoon and expands northeastward across the region through the evening hours. The greatest snow accumulation will occur 10pm – 4am. Then, the back edge of the snow shifts west-to-east across the region 2am-5am. Skies remain cloudy through daybreak on Wednesday.
Wednesday:
The region will have decreasing cloudiness through mid-morning then sunny and cold for the remainder of the day. Wednesday night will be very cold with readings in the teens under clear skies, light winds and possible fresh snow cover. Clouds will increase toward early Thursday, but most of the night should be clear and calm.
There is a slight chance that another storm system could bring wintry precipitation to the area Thursday and Thursday night, and it is too early to determine specific amounts/impacts if any.
