ST.
PETERSBURG, Fla., July 2, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- When severe weather strikes, customers count on
essential workers to help communities recover, and Duke Energy has
been recognized for its efforts during Hurricane Idalia as an
Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Emergency Response Award recipient.
The Emergency Response Awards recognize recovery and assistance
efforts of electric companies following service disruptions caused
by extreme weather or other natural events.
The winners were chosen by a panel of judges following an
international nomination process. The awards were presented during
EEI's annual meeting in June.
"America's electric companies work around-the-clock to restore
power following severe storms and other extreme weather events,"
said Dan Brouillette, EEI president
and CEO. "Duke Energy's commitment to restoring power in a safe,
efficient manner to the communities it serves following Hurricane
Idalia is admirable. Duke Energy and its storm response team are
extremely deserving of this well-earned recovery award."
On Aug. 30, 2023, Hurricane
Idalia, a devastating Category 3 storm, made landfall in
Florida as one of the most
damaging storms to hit the Big Bend. It caused severe flooding,
damage and widespread outages that impacted nearly 200,000 Duke
Energy Florida customers.
Advanced forecasting, damage modeling and lessons learned from
previous storms helped Duke Energy strategically place more than
4,000 lineworkers, tree professionals and damage assessors ahead of
the storm to respond as quickly as possible, restoring power to
more than 90% of impacted customers within 24 hours of the storm
exiting the company's service territory.
"It is our job to have an effective plan in place to respond to
restore power quickly after a major storm, and I am proud of the
efforts of the thousands of men and women who engaged in this
response," said Scott Batson, Duke
Energy chief power grid officer. "It is an honor to be recognized
for this work by our peers and to have the opportunity to serve our
customers and communities following a major storm when they count
on us most."
"When catastrophic storms strike, Duke Energy and others in our
industry come together to do what we do best: restore power as
quickly and safely as possible," said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state
president. "Our storm response plan is built upon decades of
experience and improvement, but most importantly, close
coordination with first responders, emergency management teams,
co-ops, municipal utilities and peer electric utilities. We are
grateful for this collaboration during Idalia, which helped shorten
response times and get communities back on their feet faster."
EEI
EEI is the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned
electric companies. Our members provide electricity for nearly 250
million Americans, and operate in all 50 states and the
District of Columbia. The electric
power industry supports more than 7 million jobs in communities
across the United States. In
addition to our U.S. members, EEI has more than 70 international
electric companies, with operations in more than 90 countries, as
International Members, and hundreds of industry suppliers and
related organizations as Associate Members.
Duke Energy Florida
Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 12,300
megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 2 million
residential, commercial and industrial customers across a
13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.
Duke Energy
Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in
Charlotte, N.C., is one of
America's largest energy holding companies. The company's electric
utilities serve 8.4 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio
and Kentucky, and collectively own
54,800 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas utilities
serve 1.7 million customers in North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky.
Duke Energy is executing an ambitious clean energy transition,
keeping reliability, affordability and accessibility at the
forefront as the company works toward net-zero methane emissions
from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions
from electricity generation by 2050. The company is investing in
major electric grid upgrades and cleaner generation, including
expanded energy storage, renewables, natural gas and nuclear.
More information is available at duke-energy.com and the
Duke Energy News Center. Follow Duke Energy
on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook,
and visit illumination for stories about the people and
innovations powering our energy transition.
Contact: Audrey Stasko
Media line: 800.559.3853
Twitter: @DE_AudreyS
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SOURCE Duke Energy