This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Duke Energy is preparing for the second hurricane season since Helene, and the utility says new upgrades have readied the grid for future storms.
Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic outages in Western North Carolina, with over 1 million and a half customers out of power after the storm in 2024. The storm was costly for Duke Energy. Combined with Hurricanes Debby and Milton, extreme weather racked up a $1.1 billion tab for the utility in 2024. Now, Duke hopes a new investment will make disaster recovery less costly.
Duke has been rolling out improvements to power lines with something called “self-healing technology,” according to Duke Energy spokesperson Zach Vavricka.
“We like to describe it like the GPS in your car. It automatically detects outages. It reroutes power to restore power faster. In some cases, it can avoid an outage altogether,” Vavricka said.
Self-healing technology uses sensors in the power lines, which automatically detect outages and signal for them to be fixed, rather than relying on customers to report outages and then wait.
Vavricka said these upgrades, which have been installed gradually since 2020, had renewed importance after Helene. They helped reduce thousands of outages during Winter Storm Fern. Vavricka said in total, 18,000 outages were avoided in Buncombe County this year because of the upgrades.
Other improvements include utility pole replacements and conversion of wood poles to steel. Disaster resiliency figures into its future energy mix, according to Duke’s own statements, and representatives maintain the grid needs to be modernized in order to meet growing energy needs and keep costs low.
However, to some environmental advocates, even though a smart grid is important, it distracts from another issue at hand: Duke’s renewed commitments to fossil fuel-burning power. Advocates say fossil fuels contribute to the climate change that makes extreme weather events like Helene more likely. This year, according to its own statements, Duke’s proposed a plan for the Carolinas region that increases natural gas combustion and delays retirements of aging coal plants. It also adds in to some solar and battery storage.
Jim Warren, a board of North Carolina environmental advocacy group NCWARN, appreciates the benefits of the new, smart grid. However, he said it’s disingenuous of Duke to claim they’re investing in disaster resilience.
Warren said he believes disaster resilience means to “help replace the dirty power generation across the state with solar plus battery storage along with energy saving programs.”
After BPR asked about the utility’s energy mix, Vavricka said Duke relies on a diverse energy mix to keep costs down and power reliable.
